Williamsonia plants

[Jiminy350]

I wanted to have some plants among the figures on my shelves so they would at least have some semblance of an environment around them.

Since all my figures are in 1/35 scale (or at least close enough), I decided to make some Williamsonia plants in the same scale. I made three plants, the largest would have been the about the maximum size estimated. I've included a pic of the PNSO Allosaurus for comparison.

[Halichoeres]

Those are fantastic! I love the little beards of dead leaves. The Washingtonia palms where I grew up would accumulate those, too.

[Blackdanter]

Those look great. Very well done, they should complement your figures nicely.

[DinoToyForum]

Amazing work!

[Jiminy350]

Thanks, everyone. They were tedious, but I'm happy the way they turned out. I'm anxious to create a different plant now to add variety. Haven't decided what the next plant will be.

[Justin_]

What did you make them from?

[edu]

Incredible job, they look superprofessional!

[SidB]

Very convincing!

[Totoro]

These are wonderful J @Jiminy350!  I'll be watching for more from you, and would enjoy hearing more about how you created these, if you're so inclined to share that.     

[Jiminy350]

These are wonderful J @Jiminy350!  I'll be watching for more from you, and would enjoy hearing more about how you created these, if you're so inclined to share that.   

Thanks, everyone!
These weren't hard to make; it was just tedious. I had to make quite a few more leaves than you would expect!

I designed everything for 1/35 scale. I drew a leaf and duplicated it multiple time and in three different sizes using PhotoElements (I'm still using version 2 !!   ). Then I printed them on regular paper, airbrushed both sides of the paper, cut them out with an X-acto blade, glued them to floral wire with CA glue. in my attached photo you can see the different sized leaves drying and one plant with the first crown of leaves glued in in the background. You can see the other trunks in the background also, waiting their turn for getting leaves.

For the "trunks" I started with pieces of sticks the lengths I wanted and shaped them taking advantage of where the existing branches grew out where I wanted stalks to branch out on my plants. I glued a piece of a nail in the bottom so I could use that to mount it later in the base.

I covered the sticks with a thin layer of Sculpey, sliced spiral slices around them to duplicate the pattern on the plants, then baked them in the oven to cure. I then painted them and drilled holes in the end of each stem in which to glue the leaves.

I curled the leaves and glued the leaves into the stalk end holes I'd drilled, with the longest leaves on the outside graduating to smaller length leaves toward the middle of each crown, and also using smaller length leaves on the younger plants. I painted extra leaves brown and yellow and inserted them in a few places to indicate dying leaves or ones that had dropped off the plant.

I mounted the plants on pieces of model plastic that I'd previously cut to shape and sanded to remove the thick edges. Then I covered the base with Golden Course Pumice Gel. You can get this at artist supply stores. It's used to create a textured base for paintings. It comes in fine and course. I think the both course or fine would work great for 1/35 scale figures. These come gray, but you can also color then with acrylics since the gel is acrylic.

That's all there is to it.

[irimali]

These look amazing!  I think the long hours were definitely worth it

[SidB]

If you could contrive ways and means to more rapidly mass produce these, there may well be a market out there for them. I'd sure buy some.