How to make a palm tree?
The trunk:
In expanded strolls in the woods I collected drained and already somewhat stunted spruce cones, which were reworked at home with a further drying.
One must then strive after to construct the structure of the trunk from the bottom to the top with ever smaller cones. Sometimes it is also necessary to break off and arrange individual segments from the collected cones. At the top of the tree one should use a somewhat thicker piece, in order to resemble the nature as close as possible. These individual parts are drilled with the Dremel (small drill) and joined by means of a strong wire and instant adhesive.
The joints (possibly also the whole trunk) should be soaked again and again with thin and/or high-viscosity instant glue (don´t forget an accelerator!). If the whole is once stable the trunk is coated with a filler (I used Model masters "Red Putty", one can however take any product, as far as it is well dilute able). It is important to fill especially the major gaps of some of the single cone “leaves”. Afterwards I put bristles of an old brush into the still damp mass in a random distribution.
The leaf:
As raw materials for the leaf I took a wire approx. 0,8mm to 1mm gauge, for the branches a thin aluminum sheet metal approx. 0,2mm gauge. The sheet metal was cut in different sizes and forms, pressed around the wire with the fingers on a double layer of tissue, until this is enclosed by the sheet up to the half of the diameter of the wire. The pressure of the backside of a brush handle enhances the connection even a bit more. Then one lets run highly liquid Cyanoacrylat - instant glue into the gutter between the wire and the sheet metal, so that nothing can fall apart any more. 
As soon as the splice is absolutely dry (this can be speeded by sprinkling food soda onto the joints), I cut strips of at about 0,5 to 1,5mm width.
I painted some of the sheets with the air gun only after cutting. This is rather problematic, since full cover painting is not so easy, as one can see many silvery spots of the sheet metal. Therefore I painted the "second" generation before cutting. Then one has only to do minor corrections.
In any case the tips of the leaves were lightened at the end with buff and light brown color. The branches were fastened into pre-drilled holes at the top of the trunk.
The base:
At the lower end of the trunk I inserted a wire, which was bent in a circle shape, so that I got a small resting base.
I poured gypsum into a small bowl and pressed the tree into it. The small basis with the barrel and the Jerry cans came with a figure set of the company Verlinden (Africa corps tank officer) and was likewise pressed into the damp gypsum.
And so the final product before the still necessary detail painting (individual sheets to detail, drying marks, washing and filters) looks like:
© 2004 Georg Schachinger
