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03-04-2020, 10:00 PM | #1 |
Crimson Guard
Join Date: Sep 2013
Location: Spring Hill, Florida
Posts: 1,102
|
What's the best greenery to buy for a nice, lush jungle appearance? I'd rather not get anything ridiculously pricey since it would be a good sized dio. Any ideas or suggestions would be great, thanks.
Last edited by ZeroDark; 03-05-2020 at 12:45 AM.. |
03-04-2020, 10:15 PM | #2 |
Banned
Join Date: Feb 2019
Posts: 10,010
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Edit: never mind it wasn’t funny
Last edited by Yeet; 03-04-2020 at 10:17 PM.. |
03-04-2020, 11:04 PM | #3 |
Mass Nerderer
Join Date: Nov 2013
Location: Slitherin' around the tank- It's cool, though, 'cause I'm being "watched"
Posts: 9,101
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Depends on what you're doing. Most of the stuff I use is meant for model railroads, but the trees, etc. offered are too small, so you'll want to get creative there.
A lot of people use aquarium and other fake plants, but I feel they always stick out like a sore thumb. I also see people using lichens, but unless you're 100% sure of what kind you're using, they're best avoided as some can be toxic like this super common variety here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letharia_vulpina (and they don't look "real" enough anyway.) For the ground cover, I use various "turfs" and static grass. "Clump foliage" is good for bushes and clumps of leaves, but it doesn't go very far. When I do deciduous trees, I just use dry branches for the trunks and the clump foliage for the leaves, but you'll want to paint the branches- other wise it doesn't look right at that scale. Also a good idea to heat them in your oven to sterilize them. I've yet to find anything I really like for conifers, so I typically buy what I can find during after Christmas sales there. For ferns, I use small feathers, and soak them in paint so they sort of clump up a bit. When they're dry, a light dry brushing helps to make them pop a bit, and then I trim the edges into a more triangular shape. Lastly, for slightly taller clumps of grass, I like to use chip-brush bristles. They can be left as is for dry grass, or colored. I'm sure you've learned by now that if encouraged, I'll ramble on about this shit for days. |
03-05-2020, 12:45 AM | #4 |
Crimson Guard
Join Date: Sep 2013
Location: Spring Hill, Florida
Posts: 1,102
|
Quote:
Depends on what you're doing. Most of the stuff I use is meant for model railroads, but the trees, etc. offered are too small, so you'll want to get creative there.
A lot of people use aquarium and other fake plants, but I feel they always stick out like a sore thumb. I also see people using lichens, but unless you're 100% sure of what kind you're using, they're best avoided as some can be toxic like this super common variety here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letharia_vulpina (and they don't look "real" enough anyway.) For the ground cover, I use various "turfs" and static grass. "Clump foliage" is good for bushes and clumps of leaves, but it doesn't go very far. When I do deciduous trees, I just use dry branches for the trunks and the clump foliage for the leaves, but you'll want to paint the branches- other wise it doesn't look right at that scale. Also a good idea to heat them in your oven to sterilize them. I've yet to find anything I really like for conifers, so I typically buy what I can find during after Christmas sales there. For ferns, I use small feathers, and soak them in paint so they sort of clump up a bit. When they're dry, a light dry brushing helps to make them pop a bit, and then I trim the edges into a more triangular shape. Lastly, for slightly taller clumps of grass, I like to use chip-brush bristles. They can be left as is for dry grass, or colored. I'm sure you've learned by now that if encouraged, I'll ramble on about this shit for days. Feel free, you've got skills, so I take your suggestions very well, any input you have is greatly appreciated. I thought the same about post Christmas, I've seen some decent trees that would be in scale since they were around 12"-15" tall. What I'm looking to do now is a jungle setup, think southeast Asia. Good tree cover for gun emplacements and vtol aircraft. Also some cobra adders for missiles. I watched budgetjedi on YouTube and am going to modify his ewok village design to make some hollowed out trees for hiding. The plan is to have several different dios each with a different environment to display my different troops and vehicles. I'm going to steal his hoth cave design for my arctic dio. Each section will be at least 4'x 8'. I'm still trying to work out a good ground cover that looks like snow, but wont stick to my figures. So feel free to throw some ideas on that out as well. |
03-05-2020, 04:39 AM | #5 |
Mass Nerderer
Join Date: Nov 2013
Location: Slitherin' around the tank- It's cool, though, 'cause I'm being "watched"
Posts: 9,101
|
Thanks man, I've still got a lot to learn, but I appreciate that all the same!
For snow, your best bet is going to be another railroading product: https://woodlandscenics.woodlandscen.../SoftFlakeSnow In fact this company is pretty well the standard for any of the ground cover stuff. Fairly priced too. I actually used to use baking soda, but it can yellow over time. Another option might be to use cotton, I've seen that used to good effect, and you can make it a bit more permanent by soaking it in diluted PVA glue, or even just hitting it with Aquanet. Beachheadmatt has probably got one of the nicest looking Hoth dios I've seen in his SW hauls thread, if you haven't checked it out, I highly recommend it. As far as a jungle foliage is concerned, you might be able to make some good palm fronds in a similar fashion to the ferns I mentioned above using larger feathers, though that's more of a brainstorm than anything, I've never done palms or umbrella trees myself. |
03-05-2020, 07:23 PM | #6 |
dreadnok
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: New Castle, Delaware
Posts: 1,385
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I mostly use plants from fish tanks and they work well for me. Most of em I bought at walmart and a few I bought cheap on ebay. Then I have a couple that are from toy dinosaur sets. Heres a link to a lot of dio's I made to display customs. If you scroll down far enough to my Spirit and Recondo customs, that scene is very jungle like to give you an idea if this is the direction you want to go in or not.
http://www.hisstank.com/forum/g-i-jo...s-customs.html
__________________
My feedback http://www.hisstank.com/forum/buy-se...-feedback.html My modern updated customs http://www.hisstank.com/forum/g-i-jo...s-customs.html My old customs: http://www.hisstank.com/forum/member.../customs-1626/ |
03-05-2020, 07:37 PM | #7 |
Crimson Guard
Join Date: Sep 2013
Location: Spring Hill, Florida
Posts: 1,102
|
Quote:
I mostly use plants from fish tanks and they work well for me. Most of em I bought at walmart and a few I bought cheap on ebay. Then I have a couple that are from toy dinosaur sets. Heres a link to a lot of dio's I made to display customs. If you scroll down far enough to my Spirit and Recondo customs, that scene is very jungle like to give you an idea if this is the direction you want to go in or not.
http://www.hisstank.com/forum/g-i-jo...s-customs.html Those are cool, how did you make the mountains? Last edited by ZeroDark; 03-05-2020 at 07:39 PM.. |
03-07-2020, 06:42 PM | #8 |
dreadnok
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: New Castle, Delaware
Posts: 1,385
|
The mountains are just paper-mache. I used big pieces of styrofoam I had saved from packaging then I ductaped the most random stuff to them to give it shape and 3-Dness. Then I paper-mache them. after that I gave em a quick brown wash to give it a more textured look and lastly I glued moss and other similar stuff on em.
__________________
My feedback http://www.hisstank.com/forum/buy-se...-feedback.html My modern updated customs http://www.hisstank.com/forum/g-i-jo...s-customs.html My old customs: http://www.hisstank.com/forum/member.../customs-1626/ |
03-07-2020, 07:11 PM | #9 |
Crimson Guard
Join Date: Sep 2013
Location: Spring Hill, Florida
Posts: 1,102
|
Quote:
The mountains are just paper-mache. I used big pieces of styrofoam I had saved from packaging then I ductaped the most random stuff to them to give it shape and 3-Dness. Then I paper-mache them. after that I gave em a quick brown wash to give it a more textured look and lastly I glued moss and other similar stuff on em.
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03-08-2020, 12:57 AM | #10 |
Crimson Guard
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: sitting in my tin can far above the world
Posts: 3,933
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I agree with everything Satanijaku said. I will also add that Hobby Lobby, Michael's or the equivilent craft store in your area has some great lichen and moss in the floral section. I just snapped a quick pic on my phone of my ewok village dio I made from Hobby Lobby stuff. The floor is a moss mat that actually scales really well in 1/18. That whole area is going through a renovation right now so some of the "behind the curtain" stuff is showing, but you can get a general sense of how the plants look. Fake plants can always be dullcoated, airbrushed or spray painted to help tone down the plastic look if you desire as well, although action figures populating the scene are glossy and plastic to begin with.
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Feedback: http://www.hisstank.com/forum/g-i-jo...-feedback.html Last edited by Breakerfan; 03-08-2020 at 01:10 AM.. |
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