North African Build

[Guest]

Pure brilliance Richard, so realistic. :thumb2::thumb2::thumb2::thumb2::thumb2:

[rtfoe]

Your dates are looking very good Richard, the palm tree is a build all on it's own.:thumb2:

Thanks Graeme, if Woodland Scenics had them in 1/35 I'd have bought. Saves a lot of time. :smiling2:

Painstaking work then - I doubt that I'd have the patience! Mind you, the result looks stunningly realistic, so worth the effort :thumb2:

Gerry, had no choice, couldn't get one off the shelf. I don't mind doing just one. It would be fantastic to have a clump of them as they do from a single base.

Pure brilliance Richard, so realistic. :thumb2::thumb2::thumb2::thumb2::thumb2:

John, can't say if its brilliant or luck that the searched items were just the right scale plus or minus a percentage or two. They helped a lot.

Cheers,
Richard

[Jim R]

Hi Richard
The dates look perfect. Lots of skill and patience.
Jim

[GerryW]

Even my wife is impressed and that takes some doing, as she's got no interest at all in modelling (or as she calls it 'Airfix')! She views modelling as something that keeps me from under her feet
She did ask what they were made of, I could answer about the seeds, but not the stems.

[minitnkr]

"....seeds & stems....", sounds familiar. PaulE

[rtfoe]

Thank you Gents,

Hi Richard
The dates look perfect. Lots of skill and patience.
Jim

Jimbo, experience making the coconut has made this more enjoyable.

Even my wife is impressed and that takes some doing, as she's got no interest at all in modelling (or as she calls it 'Airfix')! She views modelling as something that keeps me from under her feet
She did ask what they were made of, I could answer about the seeds, but not the stems.

Gerry, the stems were the mating of dried roots and thin wire sandwiched with masking tape. As for the trunk it was a twig heavily coated with two part putty and string twined in a zig zag fashion like a pineapple then streaked and shaped with a hacksaw blade. You can see my first experiment for a coconut trunk here. Click here.

"....seeds & stems....", sounds familiar. PaulE

So are fig biscuits Paul. :hungry:

Took some shots of the dates on the palm. They were attached with Uhu and CA glues.



I sprayed some Tamiya Deep Green XF-26, Flat Green XF-5 and Light Green X-15 over the earlier light olive green base of the leaves.



The trunk was dry brushed with the old faithful Humbrol enamels of tan, buff and light grey.



Cheers,
Richard

[Neil Merryweather]

Brilliant!

[Guest]

Following a meeting here at Race Towers Awards Committee its been decided to award the Dogs even before the dio is complete.

Congratulations Richard.

[scottie3158]

Richard,
That is outstanding mate.

[rtfoe]

Thanks Neil, John and Scottie,

My cats aren't going to like that award sitting on the mantle.:tears-of-joy:

Cheers,
Richard

[rtfoe]

I was right...at least one of the cats on knowing of the Dogs Award made an attack on the palm...actually knocked some kit boxes from the shelf and landed on the palm. Good thing though, have you heard the one about the hurricane telling the palm trees to hold on to their nuts as it wasn't going to be an ordinary blow job...well this palm held onto its nuts and I managed to twist the leaves back into shape.:smiling2:

Cheers,
Richard

[GerryW]

At least you'll have the thought that it'll stand up to anything that you might do to it now!

[Strenko J]

Amazing realism in those trees.... absolutely amazing work

[rtfoe]

At least you'll have the thought that it'll stand up to anything that you might do to it now!

Yep, most of my dios are pretty rigid in construction so it can travel to shows without having to touch up or adjust. So, this unpredicted test finished with flying colors... no dates wasted.

Amazing realism in those trees.... absolutely amazing work

Thanks Joe, I still have to add some old leaves and stems hanging as it's too clean at the base of the fronds. The trunk also needs variation tones and a dark pin wash.

Cheers,
Richard

[rtfoe]

Talk about realism experience or coincidence, SWMBO just got back from her boss's daughters Malay wedding and in her goodie bag were two boxes of dates. Now I'm happily chomping on them and working on the tree. :smiling2:

Cheers,
Richard