The first of the palm trees

I was keen to see how the cheap plastic palms might turn out, so in-between painting a small host of Beja and varnishing my first British army infantry unit, I worked on a base of three trees.

These are made of polythene, so cleaning up the mould lines required a new scalpel blade, definite, clean cuts, and patience.

Once cleaned up I washed the parts in warm soapy water and left them to dry. A coat of varnish and they were ready for painting. I used Vallejo Tan Earth, followed by a wash of Army Painter Strong Tone, with details picked out quite quickly in Iraqi Sand.

Using wood glue I sandwiched two layers of 2mm MDF off-cuts to a 60mm circular 2mm base. Once set I drilled these right through, ensuring that the resulting holes would give a very tight fit for the spigots moulded on the end of each trunk. After inserting the trunks I trimmed off any excess. Vallejo Sandy Paste, paint, sand, and detailing, and the result is way better than I was expecting.

The first of the palm trees … not too shabby.