Today I started with putting together some palm trees, desert terrain, based on a Youtube video by Striking Scorpion 82, which can go nicely with my yet-to-be-received Desert Mat by Gamemat.eu.
I saw this video a few times now, and seemed really feasible for me, being pretty much a noob at painting. I didn't have sand and grass/flock yet, nor stones and sand.
Materials
However, that's all in the end. I did already have:
- some Green Stuff through eBay (The Troll Trader - UK based).
- Some - as in 28 meters - 1.6mm bare copper wire (You need about 2.1 meters per tree, so doesn't seem excessive?).
- M12 - roughly 3,5cm diameter - Washers (from the local hardware store).
- Paints of course. As this is "merely" scenery I opted for cheap-ass paint (like 1,50 EUR per 8 tubes of 12ml) with cheap-ass brushes (less than 1 EUR for 6 of them, which I intend to use with glue, liquid green stuff and the like).
- In holland the term "PVA glue" is non-existent. However, after some searching it seems overhere we just call it "white wood glue"... *sigh* I found "Pattex wood glue D3" (which means it's water/condensation-resistant, important with wet paint!?) in the same store as the paint and brushes, for the same ridiculously low price of less than 2 EUR...
Process
Following the video I cut the copper wire to length and mashed them together.
I free-handed the first leaf based on the length of the wires. Note that Luke has longer branches than me, I came to 7cm roughly - 1 leaf only 5 cm), whereas he has 9cm leafs. I traced that one on another folded piece of paper, giving me 16 bigger, and 8 smaller leafs.
While I had added the leafs to the first tree, I created a second one and added leafs there as well.
I like the color Luke chose, but I wanted it a bit less yellow, more green, so I opted to mix the dark green with the harsh yellow and painted away!
Regretfully I don't have pictures, they dissipated somewhere in the world wide web, mobile devices FTL. I made the pictures from the lockscreen of my Nexus 5X, but they were never added to Google Photos... :(
Anyway, the result was less than stellar. It cames out much to bright!
So, more cheap paint to the rescue. Cheap as in 2 EUR per 200ml I think. In itself I didn't like it, too "flat". But with the layer already on there, who knows?
The outcome was pleasing! Maybe due to the lower grade quality of the paint, the brushes, and perhaps the absorption-quality of the paper, but the strokes shown pretty clearly. I put on three 3 layers, nicely showing various grades of darkness.
For the bark of the tree I used the dark brown from the same el cheapo set, and found I only had to apply a single layer and could forgo entirely with the dry-brushing, as the yellow masking-tape I used still showed through the paint, and actually provided the same effect all by itself! Happy camper! :-)
Using scissors to create the palmy leafs, I found that it worked better for me to do a single side of each leaf, then flip the tree upside down, and do the other side.
I didn't do that on the first couple leafs, and the cuts on the "other" side were not well. The angle of the scissors kept shifting (I don't have a steady hand).
Curling up the branches went flawlessly - yay me! - but on the top I saw a few rips appear, maybe due to the saturation of the paper, used paint, etc, etc. nothing a touch-up won't fix!?
Result
They look great together, if I say so myself? :-)
And here is the first resting up to the box, waiting for the Green Stuff to dry up, and the basing material and additional Green Stuff (I left most of it with the commission painter) to arrive next week, which I ordered while waiting from things to dry...
sidenote: You Brits are lucky to apparently have such a vibrant hobby-nation. It's way, WAY, cheaper to purchase overthere (including shipping!!) than to get it overhere...
Happy logging!!
Jimmy
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