There are many products on the market for making trees and shrubs, but they are often in model railroad scales. To make vegetation for larger scales like 1/35, head to your garden and use simple leaf material.
When digging up dead or unwanted plants, save the roots and leave them to dry. You can shake off the remaining dirt and store them for future use.
Several companies make leaves in 1/35 scale; I had a couple of bags from Hudson & Allen Studio, one dyed green, a good starting point for my project representing a summer scene.
Attaching leaves is simple. I squirt a little wood glue onto a plastic lid. Using tweezers, I pick up individual leaves, dip the tip into the glue, and position it on the root.
Pay attention to the direction of the leaves. Branches tend to have more leaves at the ends and the Hudson & Allen leaves have a natural bend that distinguishes top from bottom. It takes time and patience, but the result is convincing.
For the desired shape, you can add branches with superglue. Apply glue to the branch, hold it in place, and apply accelerator. Wood absorbs superglue, so a good- sized blob will hold it and provide a natural broadening where the branch meets the trunk.
To fill gaps where added branches meet the trunk, apply a drop of wood glue. Add branches until you satisfied, but typically, the more you add, the better the tree or shrub will look.
At this point, it’s looking pretty good, but the color is too uniform and not as bright as I wanted. So, I airbrushed the leaves with Tamiya Flat Green (No. XF-5), thinned 50% and with the pressure at about 5 psi to avoid blowing the leaves off the branches. It helps to put the plant on onto a paper towel and spray downward.
To further brighten and create highlights, I airbrushed Tamiya Park Green (No. X-28) on the upper points. Misting this color at an angle from above kept the contrast subtle producing just a little variation in the leaf color.
I attached the shrubs and tree to the base. Then, using Vallejo Model Color acrylics, I hand-painted the plants to add color variation and highlights; color and tone choice was based on where the objects sat on the base. I applied Chocolate Brown (No. 70.872) to touch up the
trunks and branches, and used mixes of Khaki (No. 70.880), Violet Brown (No. 70.887), German Bright Camo Green (No. 70.833), and Lime Green (No. 70.827) for the leaves.
It took a while to complete the shrubs and the tree for my M10 project, but the result was well worth the time and effort. The techniques are simple, and the material cost is minimal, making this a great way to get vegetation that is more to scale and exactly the shapes you need. In this case, the custom-made shrubs and tree provide a convincing setting to show the tank destroyer’s hedgerow cutter doing its job to clear a path forward.