My first custom "real" tree: a small willow tree

Well, I have decided that for the most part I want to be able to identify my plants on the diorama.  Just like the animals, most of the plants are going to be replicas, rather then just a "tree" like the old style model trains.  Well for the most part I am going to use a model maker that Danny uses, Danny has been great to me in both selection and buying models he had made before changing over to 1:12.  Many of the posts show his trees, the scale is 1:24 which for a plant is great for my scale (1:22) but for his zoo, they have to be twice as big.

Yesterday I modeled a small willow tree, it came out nice, but was not only small but I did very few branches.  Today I decided to make a larger one, not an adult tree, but an older tree.  I chose willow for a couple of reasons, first I like that tree, and second it was one I could do with what I have here at the house.  I started with a basic Woodland Scenic tree trunk.  From there I added wire branches and when that was done I arched them down like a weeping willow.
Here is the photo
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Next I painted the trunk and wire, I chose a toffee color mixed with grey to give it a dusty brown color, like the ones in our neighborhood.
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finally I put the foliage on it.  I am really happy with the tree, but not the pictures, I tried several things, first natural light and it washed out the color so you couldn't see the tree, then inside with a flash and again you can't see the leaves very well as the color is very washed out.  Finally I took the photo with no flash, but my shaking hands gives the picture an blurry quality and it just doesn't show really well.  In life the tree looks just like a young willow,
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It is about 10 inches tall, and 6 inches at it's widest point.  I didn't make it for a diorama, as it is a native tree to temprate and alpine Northern hemisphere, but while looking it up on the internet found some very interesting things about willows.  For instance, they are very closely related and natural hybrids are very common, for instance the weeping willow is a naturally occuring hybrid that is now one of the most common cultivated varieties.  the most interesting thing to me was the smallest willow, it lives at or above the tree line, and only gets 2 inches tall!  It usually creeps along the ground like a vine, but it is a tree.  Very interesting group of plants.

Phil it's beautiful! I love willows they are so majestic.

I had some time on my hands today, so while surfing the web I saw some articles on making various plants and trees. The two articles I saved were pond plants and palm trees. I decided to try to make some reeds, cattails here we call them, but I do not know all of the names. The article said it was easy and looks good, so I decided to do it. It not only was fun, but it was easy and they look good.

I started with florist wire, which is green, and I cut 2 to 3 inch pieces. I started with 8, but they were so nice I'm going to make about 30th The first step was to put the flower on the top of the main stem. I used fine Woodland Scenics turf, olive color. Next while that was drying out the leaves I drew and painted them. I chose green camp ground, and I mixed mustard yellow to some of the leaves, going from solid green to almost solid yellow fresh new leaves representing all the way down to older dying leaves. When this was dry I cut the leaves off of the paper and glued them to the stem. I made the reeds only about 1 to 2 inches tall, the rest was used to anchor it into the foam. When place on the diorama I will cut the stem down to very short and glue into the reeds. Sometimes these cattail can be over 5 ft tall, so I'm probably going to make the next batch much bigger, but that is the nature of the experiment, I am trying things on the mini Asian dio So that when the big one gets started I have an idea of what to expect and what I can make that looks good versus what does not.

Here are the pics, first the group of 8 and then a closeup of the leaves and flowers.
[IMG] https://2img.net/h/i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd31/philter4/diorama/P4190831.jpg [/ IMG]

[IMG] https://2img.net/h/i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd31/philter4/diorama/reedcloseup.jpg [/ IMG]

Please tell me what you think, on the final version they will be more then twice as tall, but the look will be the same.

very nice plants Phil, I remember seeing a website with some good explanations about realistic trees but I'm unable to found it again.
If my memory come back, I will post the link here.

Very nice tree and cat-tails Phil, they look great!

Lovely tree Phil. We had a weeping willow that was a switch that my husband's step-dad used to beat him with. My husband stuck it in the ground and started watering it and it grew quite big. We finally had to cut it down because we had several hail storms that beat it really badly and then termites started eating it. It was a beautiful tree though.

The cattails are also great. You did an awesome job on both.

By the way, very nice Weimaraner too Amy! :)

WILLYBACOMAN wrote:

By the way, very nice Weimaraner too Amy! :)

Crazy lion,let this dog restful, it is not for you... You still can hunt some Roquefort if you are so hungry...

Haha, the crazy macaque from France is speaking again...
I would be the first lion that would eat Roquefort i guess, haha...

WILLYBACOMAN wrote:

By the way, very nice Weimaraner too Amy! :)

Thanks Willy. That is one of my babies. She is 14 years old and just had to have a cancerous tumor removed from her throat. She is a lot younger in the picture, probably 6 or 7. She still acts like a puppy though. She jumps around and barks and loves to play.

I specially like the un-usual colour on this breed.
And yes, when dogs get in this age, they can develop those diseases, one breed more then the other.
I think it has something to do with a kind of inbreeding, when people developed the several breeds..., sad but a efact, like HD in many breeds.
You see it happen more in special breeds, then in mixed-breed dogs...
But nice that the dog is still happy and so much alive.
When those diseases weren't there, i often had the feeling that dogs could be much older in age.