Hey All,
I want to know what to use to make realistic tree leaves. In my last diorama I used lichen but I didn’t particularly like the way it looks as tree leaves. As bushes its Okay though. Does anyone know of a product called Polypody for making tree leaves? If anyone can tell me where I can find this or any other medium that I can use for tree leaves, I’d greatly appreciated.
Thanks
TigerII
Try using loose tea leaves. Fix them in position using thinned white glue and then paint/drybrush them the colour you want.
Dried oregano works too (and gives off a nice Mediterranean flavour!)
hudson & Allen makes some good stuff, but tea leaves work also. I’d just make sure tho, that if you use those products, try and build up some small branches on the larger ones, otherwise it will look like…well it wont be pretty. another option is woodland scenics tree material.
oregano, marjorum, parlsley flakes, tea leaves, catkins all have made it to my table.
Thanks for all your suggestions. I knew of the oregano and the parsley, but I didn’t know about the catkins and the tea leaves.
Tiger II
I just got back from the local hobby shop (You know the one, the dusty place that time forgot? Open since 1960 and some inventory still hasn’t turned over?), where I was rummaging through old model publications. There was one issue of a mag from Russia that I’d never seen before. My skills at deciphering Cyrillic have deteriorated a bit, but there was an interesting article on replicating oak leaves.
The author started with a piece of brass tubing chamfered at the end so as to form a cutting edge. He then bent the edge at intervals to form something reminiscent of an oak leaf. He then used it to punch mini leaves out of an actual tree leaf, so that a small vein toward the outside of the leaf represented the strong main vein down the center.
Then the crazy Russkie built a replica of an oak tree with hundreds of these little leaves . . . . must be something about those long winters.