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Author Topic: Best plastic plants  (Read 2929 times)

Offline manatic

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Best plastic plants
« on: March 14, 2019, 07:59:54 AM »
So, a lot of people are using plastic (often aquarium) plants for building jungle terrain and the like - myself included. However, a lot of the plants used don't really look spot on scalewise, as they just look like giant versions of small plants, like metres-tall blades of grass and the like. So, I'm looking for plastic plants that are not that, but instead look more scale-appropriate or can be cut down to make them such. A good example is the rosemary Fejka by Ikea:



Looking for very concrete tips, preferably with direct links if possible! I'm already quite familiar with "maybe look on eBay or Aliexpress", I'm doing this to save my time :D

Offline Daeothar

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Re: Best plastic plants
« Reply #1 on: March 14, 2019, 08:57:18 AM »
I myself have gathered up as much old Britains Trees as I could over the years. They're plastic scale trees, originally for use with their (other) toy lines.

But they scale very well with 28mm miniatures. The larger ones are made up from root, trunk and branch parts, with foliage provided in large patches of cast branches with leaves. The smaller ones are made up of roots/base, a single bit of trunk and branches, and the leafy parts.

These give a very realistic effect, especially since the trunk, branch and leaf parts can be assembled in loads of different ways, so no two trees have to look the same.

So far, I have found oaks, birches, pines and willows, of which the oaks and pines are the large ones, and the others smaller.

They will need some paints, inks or at least some mat varnish to take the plastic look off (just like aquarium- or other fake plants). Some batches of the leafy bits have a bit too much plasticizer to take paint well though (you can tell by the smell, even after a few decades), but overall, I find them awesome. They're getting harder to source, and as a result, more expensive, but I still think they're well worth the money.
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Offline Mindenbrush

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Re: Best plastic plants
« Reply #2 on: March 14, 2019, 12:40:20 PM »
I assume that Europe has something similar to the UK Poundland and Dollarama here in Canada?

I bought all my plastic plants from Dollarama over the last 4 or 5 years and picked up a new, smaller bunch of leafed plants yesterday to add to the collection.
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Offline pacarat

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Re: Best plastic plants
« Reply #3 on: March 15, 2019, 03:47:21 AM »
For my jungle/tropical themes, I have taken a variety of plastic (and sometimes paper) flowers and plants bought from hobby and craft stores and “tweaked” them to look more in scale.... generic term is “floral stems”.

Key for me is getting a bunch of pieces close together on a base, and intertwined to maximize the quantity of leaves, etc. in that area. Many plastic stems are very two dimensional in their (due to manufacturing process) appearance, so rotating and twisting when gluing really helps give a more natural effect.

I may only use 10% of the material on a 16-20” long stem. I cut off individual fronds or leaves, or trim to keep just smallest branch or leaf ends. Hot glued onto bases - I use the mini-size hot glue gun which has a very fine nozzle.

Wood bases in pic below are 25mm diameter for scale reference.














For temperate locations I am more inclined to use leaf flock on natural looking material such as furnace filter, horsehair, or spun polyfiber (actual term I dont recall atm)



« Last Edit: March 15, 2019, 04:18:47 AM by pacarat »

Offline FifteensAway

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Re: Best plastic plants
« Reply #4 on: March 16, 2019, 01:11:58 PM »
I like Pacarat's work but I think it highlights Manatic's point (except the last deciduous photos).  The leaves look over-scale on most of the items.  This is exacerbated for me working in 15 mm. 

I always keep an eye out when in either craft stores or places like Ross stores here in USA that have fake plant sections - both plastic, silk flowers, and dried natural product (though rarely the latter because too often too brittle).  Alas, all of the 'smallest' items use the same technique in various colors - a tiny little soft plastic bead of some sort glued in various clusters meant to resemble the real plant.

This is a bit frustrating because, within the limits of my skill set, I like my games to look like moving dioramas.  But like so much in this hobby, there must be compromises to create a playable game.  For me the gigantic compromise was to settle for "wedding-cake" hills because they provide a flat surface for my figures to stand on.  I'd prefer natural slopes but they play havoc with keeping figures vertical even when on multi-figure bases.

Thus, I've just decided to accept 'get as close as you can to what you want and then accept the imprecision and get on with having fun.'  Works for me.

Offline Bahir

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Re: Best plastic plants
« Reply #5 on: March 17, 2019, 09:05:08 PM »
Pacarat, where did you get the bases for your plants?

Offline pacarat

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Re: Best plastic plants
« Reply #6 on: March 18, 2019, 03:06:29 AM »
Pacarat, where did you get the bases for your plants?

Run of the mill MDF 25mm bases - most of these are from Bandua.

Offline manatic

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Re: Best plastic plants
« Reply #7 on: March 18, 2019, 07:05:48 AM »
Thanks for the comments! I really like your approach, pacarat, those look much better than most of the stuff out there. I'm happy with some slight off-scaling, as long as it looks reasonable.

Offline joekano

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Re: Best plastic plants
« Reply #8 on: March 18, 2019, 04:14:43 PM »
I use the following from ZooMed  for 28mm figures:

Amazonian Phyllo

Malaysian Fern

Australian Maple

Borneo Star


Also, the Ashland grass mats



http://majorthomasfoolery.blogspot.com/2016/01/jungle-terrain_25.html
« Last Edit: March 18, 2019, 04:19:42 PM by joekano »
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Offline Belgian

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Re: Best plastic plants
« Reply #9 on: March 18, 2019, 05:05:31 PM »
I buy my plant pieces in cheap stores and Ebay,

not sure if they are oversized but they do the job for me.
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Offline Commander Roj

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Re: Best plastic plants
« Reply #10 on: March 20, 2019, 11:56:49 AM »
I buy my plant pieces in cheap stores and Ebay,

not sure if they are oversized but they do the job for me.

I particularly like the largest, tree like pieces on those. Nice work.

Offline Enakan

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Re: Best plastic plants
« Reply #11 on: March 20, 2019, 01:35:43 PM »
Hobby Lobby and use my 40% off coupon for the most expensive piece! 

Anymore too, I like stuff from what I see outside.  Rocks, sticks, broken small limbs, nuts, different types of bark.....

Seriously thinking of using some Spanish Moss, spray painted red, for some Martian vegetation!

Hmmm.......

Offline Belgian

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Re: Best plastic plants
« Reply #12 on: March 21, 2019, 06:00:49 PM »
I particularly like the largest, tree like pieces on those. Nice work.

Thanks, they were just bought from ebay. I did however combine those same trees with some homecast tree trunks to make larger trees as shown below. Think around 17cm high.
« Last Edit: March 21, 2019, 06:04:48 PM by Belgian »