Thanks Gamera,

I'm currently concentrating on the figures which I've moved to the figure forum linked here: /forums/t/130433.aspx

Meanwhile here are some pictures of banana trees and shrubs I took recently.

This one is right in front of my house. It's a pigmy banana plant that won't bare fruits and is usually an ornamental plant for the garden.

These are larger and can grow into large clumps. The leaves are longer and don't droop as percieved in some western dios that I've seen.

Obviously some grow the larger variants in their garden perhaps for their fruit or leaves.

Thanks for looking.

Cheers,

Richard

Richard,

Haven't been around here much but I pop by and your progress is impressive. I love the banana tree, I don't think I've ever seen one in the 'flesh' but wow it's convincing!

Really nice to see a dio that's not set in Europe for a change!

Thanks Jon, it hits even harder when you have a child of your own.

Also thanks for the comments on both the dios. I'm stuck with the figures at the moment. I haven't got enough reference of the unit I am to portray making the pit stop.

The fruit stall owner has yet to be modeled from the VC figure I have. I have to wittle him down to wear a singlet. Lots of carving to do.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers,

Richard

Richard, I wish your friend's niece all the best and its good of you to help them. My daughter just turned 3 last week and I can't imagine having to go through that. Having friends around for support is good.
I love the speeder bike vignette. Being a Star Wars fan, how could I not? I also strongly recommend hitting up the local aquarium for foliage supplies. I used to work at Petsmart and would frequently browse the fish or reptile section for items I could use. There is a great assortment of plastic plants that with a little work can look like something you've done here. There is also fake grass they sell for reptariums which I've used before. One last item I recommend are the ornaments. I've used ornaments that were bridges, or Roman ruins (which work well in a north africa setting). Any way, I'll be watching as this continues. Great work.

Bodge

I send the little girl all my best wishes and may she get well soon, Andy.

Thanks Andy, she's got two years of chemo if everything goes well.

Cheers,

Richard

I send the little girl all my best wishes and may she get well soon, Andy.

Thanks Guys, no progress to show as I've laid off for a while. I was helping a friend to source platelet donors for their 5 yr old niece whose been diagnosed with ALL, a form of leukemia. A number of my local forumers have volunteered including myself and the little girl is currently undergoing chemo. Let's hope for the best.

Anyway...

Steve - Thanks, it's my first foray into painting a banana tree. Lucky it turned out ok.

Mike T - The splitting of the leaves is due to the lack of some mineral in the soil as I was told. There are some in my neighbours garden with perfect leaves. Have you tried eating at an Indian restaurant that uses banana leaves as plates? It's a favourite in our Indian curry restaurants.

Also did you get a chance to see the production for Star Wars that was near your area?

Ibro - Thanks, glad you like it. I'll be switching to figures soon and it will be featured in the figure section of the forum.

Cheers,

Richard

Great work Richard, lovely lovely scene. 

Richard,

Great work on the banana. Its hard to find a perfect leaf, they always have those splits and damage.

On the Star Wars seem. its nicely done! The scenes were filmed just north of here at the John Muir Woods. Redwood forests are actually quite damp and the trunk and any exposed surface has loads of lichens growing over them, unlike those forests of the north east that I grew up with.

Mike T. 

Outstanding work goin' on here, Richard. Love the 'nanner tree.

Steve

Hi Guys,

I just browsed through the site I just linked you and found that it is the same product I used for the banana and yam plant. The gallery dios look a bit toylike but with a bit of ingenuity and weathering, I think it can turn out quite realistic. I particularly want to get their sugarcane and bamboo plant as well as the splash water resin.

Their long grass would have saved me some time and brush bristles on my last dios.

Cheers,

Richard

Hi Indy, besides shopping at the aquerium store, I found this link from my Tamiya magazine for jungle foliage. I think it's the same stuff I used for the banana tree. Don't know the cost, I've yet to go in browse.

Mecharama Jungle Foliage:

http://ediorama.com/xe/

Now everyone can do a jungle dio.

Cheers,

Richard

Another superb old build huh Richard?

Love the speeder bike but the SETTING is amazing~~!

So.....shop the aquerium store, eh? I hear ya

Andy and Sterno, many thanks for the kind words.

Building up real looking foliage has been an ongoing challenge for me too. I've used everything from roots to seaweeds even.

I've got to set this straight, all the foliage in R&R were foraged, only the banana tree and yam plants are from after market made from paper and wire. I got these on a trip to Singapore, can't remember the brand. They come in packets, slightly embossed, flattened and straight and in the paper color of flat green. You need to shape them and paint them to suite the dio. I added the dead leaves on the bark and snipped at the leaves to give it the raggedy look. The trick here is to utilise anything that looks to scale even if they're plastic aquariam plants. Here's an example of what can be done with a little ingenuity:

Thanks for looking and glad you both like it.

Cheers,

Richard

I see that all of the tree parts are made...hats off...flawless!!!

WOW, Incredible work. I love everything about it. Realistic or what.

I am a bit of a sucker for trying to get realistic foliage myself and its certainly far more rewarding to make your own i think you will agree.  Andy.

Incredible work Richard!...the paint is fantastic...are ther trees scratcbuilt??? Keep it comming!!!

telsono

Richard, except for the lettering your dio looks like photos I have seen from present day Vietnam where my wife is from. Exceptional job!

Mike T.

Welcome back Mike and thanks.

Yes, both our countries share the same climate and building styles. The Vietnam war was so real to us as it felt so close to home. I guess you're acustomed to the food and climate when you visit your wife's home town?

I have a small update which was done just now. I've painted the leaves of the banana tree.

Just needs a final coat of semi-gloss to offset the sheen a little.

Thanks for following the WIP.

Cheers,

Richard

*INDY

FLOATPLANE   you say? Now that sounds very interesting indeedy That I'd like to see.

I hear ya about sealing the naturally sourced plant materials. I for one always shy away from using real dirt and plants for Dio work---but I cant argue with the results I see some modelers get.(I do like using sand and rocks as you've seen though)  You thread here is a treasure-book of great scratcherizing tips and tid-bits------A real model itself of what a model blog oughta be

Thanks Indy, for the kind words, coming from you is a really much appreciated. The floatplane is one way of getting me inspired to mess with plastic again 'cos dios are tedious and takes you away from assembling kits. Sometimes I like to just build OOB without painting at all.

I have to be focused on this dio to complete it...it's been three years in the making.

Cheers,

Richard

Richard, except for the lettering your dio looks like photos I have seen from present day Vietnam where my wife is from. Exceptional job!

Mike T.

FLOATPLANE   you say? Now that sounds very interesting indeedy That I'd like to see.

I hear ya about sealing the naturally sourced plant materials. I for one always shy away from using real dirt and plants for Dio work---but I cant argue with the results I see some modelers get.(I do like using sand and rocks as you've seen though)  You thread here is a treasure-book of great scratcherizing tips and tid-bits------A real model itself of what a model blog oughta be

*INDY

entirely convincing banananana tree

Indy, either you or me are going bananananas! Lol

Thank you, it hit me as well. I was pondering about how to create the bark effect for the banana tree trunk until I was watering my wife's plants and ...hey presto!...hmmm this could work.

Something to consider when using natural dried vegetation is to seal it with varnish to preserve it. It may look dead but as it decomposes it gets brittle and disintegrates. I use Future and Testors dullcote to seal it.

Sorry no progress today. Was looking at my stash at this Sunderland and Nakajima Floatplane. There's a Amphibious GB coming up, thought I'd start on one of them.

Cheers,

Richard

Thanks Jon and Andy for following this thread. I appreciate your comments even at this late stage. I can understand if the comments come in trickles especially when the WIP is as long as this one. The viewer count indicates that it has a steady stream of viewers and is encouraging.

Forums like these give the opportunity for closet builders to showcase and share their efforts otherwise it just collects dust on shelves at home. I hope by sharing, my efforts may help unravel some building technics hindering other builders. Also this particular dio has a local flavour that taps into a frozen time in my country's history.

Glad you both like it and I welcome your comments anytime.

I just got a request to add a King Fisher and grafitti on the concrete by my Malaysian friends. This will give an indication why this dio is taking so long to complete. I'll think about it.

Cheers,

Richard

BAM!

that did the trick    WoW

beautiful move

entirely convincing banananana tree

 Enough of lurking around at my end.  I don't do diomaras... not yet but one day I will.  I have been following your work since you started posting.  AMAZING work!   Thank you for taking your time to post your work.

Richard, I've been following this thread with great interest, but haven't commented yet. My apologies. I must say you are doing some excellent work here. You have some very clever ideas about how to create foliage and make it look very convincing, in a manner that I would probably never think of! Great work!

Thanks Narayan, I hope it comes out the way you've described it. Really appreciate the lovely comment.

I've put in a short progress on the banana tree. This time the attention was to the trunk. The AM tree trunk was plain green. The real trunk normally has layers of dried leaves still attached so I ventured into my wife's little garden...

...picked out some dried stem coverings from a creeper plant...

...cut them and pasted them in layers onto the trunk...

...with UHU glue. I tweeked and teased it to fold until satisfied with the look. What do you think?

There's still more to be done. And thanks for looking.

Cheers,

Richard

Richard, this is coming together beautifully. There is so much to look at. You have captured day-to-day existance very well with all your details, and the lushness and variaety of equatorial foliage. When you put the vehicles and soldiers on to the dio,  I think its going to show in a very real way how intrusive military activities are into normal life. Beautiful work.

Hi! Going bananas for now.

Did a little with the short time I had yesterday. Here's what it looks like before painting:

I painted the stripes and highlighted the center stem.

It's still not done yet. Will continue later.

Thanks for looking.

Cheers,

Richard

Hey Adam, good to hear from you.

You didn't miss much on R & R, as most people who stumble on this post would likely say..."He's at it again with the base" Lol But like you said a dio needs a good base. And I agree.

I've always wanted to get the foliage of the tropical jungle right at least in 1/35 scale. I'm happy it's turning out well.

As you noticed, the fruitstall is missing some fruit. Because I didn't seal them properly some insect had them for a meal. The plums and veggie were reduced to dust and only one comb of bananas was lost. This time I'm soaking the dried herbs in insecticide before painting.

Yes! There is a Heli forum here. I thought it odd too being a seperate forum from aircraft. I spent the last month detailing the UH-34. The base was a last minute addition and was done in six days flat from plan up.

I'm working on painting the banana tree for R & R now and will post some pictures later.

Checklist:

1)  Base - 90% complete. Banana tree in progress.

2)  Land Rover - 95% complete, only to add duffle bags, antenna, ciggies and a map.

3)  Honda Cub - Only weathering remains to blend with the base.

4)  Dogs, sandles, clogs, scale - Completed.

5)  Ducks, abandoned bicycle, cat and bird - Still in progress.

6)  SLR's, Sterling Sub-machine guns - Straps to be added.

7)  Figures - Four posed, three to four more to go.

Thanks for hanging in there.

Cheers,

Richard