Trees and bushes...?

[Lucky13]

How do you make a good one?

 

[Airframes]

Have a look at Part One of the Diorama Guide Jan. I've covered it briefly, and it'll be covered in more detail in Part Two, when I get it finished! There are some very good ready-made trees etc, but they're bl**dy expensive. The method Muller used for his palm trees is similar to one of the methods I used, again briefly covered in the guide, and you can also use Sea Moss, which is fairly costly at around £15 for a large pack, but you can make quite a few trees etc. If you have a look at some of the different types of indoor, ornamental ferns that you'd find in Garden Centres, B&Q etc, there are parts of some of those that can be cut and used also. There are also various products in the model railways lines, now even from Hornby, that can also be used. Scale counts for a lot of course, and the bigger the scale, the bigger the problem, and the bigger the tree will be, obviously...in 1/32nd for instance, you're looking at an average of around 12 inches tall (300mm)!

 

[Lucky13]

Thank you frightfully old chap, jolly decent of you! Thought that it in time, would try my hands at a diorama like this....

 

[Wurger]

Also you can use some of these trees and bushes that are offered for railway modelling.Some of them look real great.In the net you can find a lot of these offers.

 

[Lucky13]

True! Dan and Terry has inspired me to try something later on.....have seen a couple of these forrest bases here and there. 8)

 

[Wurger]

The diorama can look very interesting Jan.

 

[Airframes]

Ah Ha! I'm planning a 1/48th scale one, with a FW190A8, for the diorama guide! However, if you're going to do a winter one, then it's much easier, as many items can be obtained from Garden Centres, florists etc. Using real twigs, with a minimum of dressing, 'winter' trees can be made very convincingly, especially those spindly ones, such as silver birch, and some of the conifers. The model railway examples that Wojtek and I mentioned can be enhanced to look very convincing, but the problem there is scale. The largest HO/OO tree can be used for small to medium in 1/32nd, and will be more convincing in 1/48th, where they won't need as much work, but the scale effect becomes more important, in order not to make any foliage or branches look too 'heavy'.
The trees I made and adapted for the Gustav diorama only just get away with it in 1/32nd scale, representing young trees at the edge of the forest/woods; in 1/48th they'd be much better looking,but, these were among the tallest (the adapted ones) available from the HO/OO model railway types, without going to the expense of ridiculous sums per tree, like £5 to £8 !!

 

[Lucky13]

Winter, spring, summer or fall.....not decided yet! Here's another "couple" of pics that has inspired me....8)

 

[Wurger]

Nice pics Jan.I think these show a sytuation quite charakteristic for the end of war.

 

[Lucky13]

True indeed my friend! Would be a nice challenge to do something like this. Make a dirt road with a 4, 5 or so late 109's or 190's, having a few rolling down and another couple sitting on the side, like to top two pics....
Hope to find more pics... 8)

 

[Wurger]

For 1/32 scale diorame you would have to have a big room buddy.

 

[Lucky13]

Tell me about it pal....that's why I only build in 1/48!

Been looking around here....and there's a warning! DO NOT VISIT samtrees.com! My anti virus protection found and deleted a downloader virus when I to visited the website, or tried to!

 

[Wurger]

For 1/48 scale models a diorama has to big as well.

THX for virus warning.Please put the info in Off topic section as well.

 

[Lucky13]

Said and done buddy.... Damn hard to find some trees that look for the 1/48!

 

[Wurger]

Seen....very well.Do you remember the virus name?

Indeed, most of threes a bushes are for railway modelling scales but these can be fitted to 1/48 one.

 

[Lucky13]

Nope, sorry Wojtek!

True buddy. I think that maybe O scale/1/43 is the best, at least as close as you can get to 1/48...

 

[Wurger]

That's a pity.

Yep these for HO are good for the purpose.

 

[Airframes]

Some of the same pics have inspired me Jan; those, and memories of walking around Rheinsehlen, back in'73, where JG26 , and others, were once based.
You'll find that the (relataively) cheap model railway trees for conifer types, similar to the ones I used, will work well for 1/48th scale, being tall enough. They can easily be enhanced, and cost around £1 to £1.50 each. Also, the trees in your pics, from the birch 'family', are fairly easy to make.
The small diorama I'm planning will be France, 1944 (possibly '43), with a JG26 FW190A, some figures, and maybe a Citroen in sand and green camouflage, as a Luftwaffe car, and possibly a truck. Was going to start that, and some with buildings, for the Diorama Guide, but something called a Group Build seemed to get in the way.......

 

[Lucky13]

Thanks for the info old chap! See a "double bill" coming up here then in the future then mate....
...and, as you know me, I have to include a "13" in the diorama!

 

[Airframes]

Sounds good to me, have a dram!