Hobby Lab: Make Cool Palm Trees With Our PDF Template Part 1
July 22, 2014 by lloyd
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That is one very cool looking palm tree.
Wow haven’t see the video yet bro but the pic of the finished result looks fantastic!
Your really showing your hobby chops on this one 🙂
Very nice work!
a great video, need some of these for my tomb kings, might have to be a school holiday project 🙂
What paper do you recommend to use? Coated or uncoated? What weight? Does the printer matter? Ink jet vs laser?
Thanks guys
@tinracer,
I used 220g/m2 paper for the leaves (just regular plan laser paper) and just a lightweight paper for the trunk (I don’t have the pack anymore so I can tell you the weight).
So I would say uncoated is probably best and I don’t think the printer type will matter.
Do we have to wait another week for part two ?
couldn’t help giggling at the fact that when Lloyd put the branches in the tube, it looked like a feather duster!
Great tutorial Lloyd! Do you think it’s possible – or useful – to take colored paper to save time for painting? Ah anyways I’ll give this a try, ’cause the result is just looking awesome.
@tuskar Possibly yes, but it’s hard to find the right weight of paper that’s also in a good shade of green. Painting don’t really take to long, most of the effort is in cutting out the leaves.
Yeah you’re right. I probably would spray them with the airbrush anyways. I’m of to my hobby store, to get some missing components. 😉
Are the spikes called fronds? This is a great tutorial and something I’ll have a go at when I get to building that Haqqislam table. Nice one Lloyd!
i love hobby lab its great. this video is very well done very clearly explained however i dont think i will be making any palm trees it looks far too time consuming and i just dont have the time.
Loved it! The finished effect from the pics looks fantastic!
The school boy in me couldn’t stop giggling during the last part though @Lloyd , the phrasing of making a plug to fit tightly in it’s bottom had me giggling so much I struggled to concentrate the last 5 mins. I’m a 30 year old with a child ffs….why was that funny…
lol I think there’s a few more moments like that in there.
Yeah, just watched it back, it was the way you said it combined with the “see, look how it’s getting snug”, combined with the actions…that’s what did it!
Hm, I wonder if I could use a drinking straw instead of the paper to make the trunk?
I thought that, but I think you lose the flexibility to bend the trunk. The paper has some give so if you build the armature it will bend nicely. If you use a straw for the core, then because of the rigidity of the plastic I don’t even think a wire armature would allow it to bend, it would just kink because it has such little flexibility.
It might be worth tying it out.
Happy little trees
As a BoW member living in Florida (where we have lots of palm trees :)) – ** Lloyd’s palm trees look just like the ones right outside my office window. 🙂 ** Yes, there are many kinds (Queen Palms, Royal Palms, Palmettos). However, I’ve noticed that they rarely grow intermingled. So I guess my advice would be make whatever k ind of tree you like, but then stick to it and don’t park different types RIGHT next to each other on your table. ** Yes, that’s a stem. Part of the leaf, not the tree. They die and fall of… Read more »
Wow those “Elephant Ears” can get massive!
I’m think this would be a great way to make ground foliage too and other more bush like palms with short/fat trunks.
It’s funny, I live in Florida and palm trees are literally everywhere you look. But we don’t even notice them anymore. But after talking about different species of palm trees, I actually “opened my eyes” on the drive home from work, and counted at least a dozen wildly different varieties (and my commute is a short one). I’ve found that having regular “tree lines” and “ground foliage” works, just make them with the craft store moss or whatever . . . then “accent” it with a few palms here and there to change the whole piece’s flavour. not only did… Read more »
Fantastic looking trees
Great video. What with Crescent & Cross on the horizon that and my own plans to start Bolt Action in the Pacific theatre it’s very timely as well.
Where’s my garden wire?!
That’s pretty extensive, but those are great looking palm trees. Also they should buy Lloyd a pair of scissors to go with his knife!
superb mate really useful
thankyou
This technique looks pretty labour intensive, but you certainly can’t argue with the results. The tree you are showing off at the beginning looks great Lloyd!
Yes, more so than the other trees we made, but like you say it looks great.
My advice is to get a group of people working together if you want to make loads.
Great video Lloyd. could have used this last year for building the “Get to the Choppa” table we used at Salute. Your trees are much better than what we came up with so looks like we be making another version to play on.
The tree looks fantastic, but I can’t help thinking that you’d save a huge amount of time by using scissors for a lot of it. Cutting the rectantles around the leaves, cuttint around the outline and then cutting into the leaves to make the slits could all be done very easily with scissors if you have a somewhat steady hand. And it’d be quick enough that if you did make a drastic mistake, you could easily chuck it and cut out another. I saw someone suggest straws for trunks earlier, but how about pipe cleaners? They’d be roughly the right… Read more »
Hi @angelicdespot, cut the template out anyway that works for you. I’m just throwing the idea out there, now you can take it and make it your own with suggestions like you’ve made 🙂 But I’m not convinced by the pipe cleaner idea as there’s no solid surface to it. You would basically be wrapping wire around another wire. As for pre-wrapping wire around a brush I’m not sure how that will save time. You’re still spending the same amount of time wrapping it around the brush and then adding another couple of steps, removing it from the brush &… Read more »
I think you’re probably right about the pipe cleaner not being strong enough. The pre-wrapping the wire was an attempt to get around this problem: a recognition that the pipe cleaner wouldn’t be strong enough on its own to wrap the wire around.
Anyway, it was a great tutorial and the end result is simply stunning. Thanks for doing it! I look forward to part 2!
I only have standard office paper (80 gsm?) at my disposal.
Do you think standard paper will be too absorbent or the aesthetic be spoiled when being painted?
Do I need to invest in some better paper or will a coat of spray varnish once painted be enough to give the leaves some durability?
Hey guys @warzan could you reupload the template?