1:35 Leaves no.2

Vegetation in photo-etched sheet, the second leaf shape

This item continues the range the Italian manufacturer devoted to small vegetation. According to the brand the material is photo-etched metal, not a loose grit and not a dried plant, so the leaves keep their position after bending and will stand later handling as well. The package is supplied without a surface finish.

Why it pays to mix the shapes

The crown of a real tree is never made of a single outline: the leaves overlap, turn edge-on to the observer and change size from the top to the lower branches. A combination of two or more shape variants therefore looks more believable than a single repeated leaf, however precisely it is rendered. It helps just as much to work with two or three shades of green and to add a few leaves turning yellow.

A procedure that proves itself

First cut the quantity of leaves you need and paint them only afterward, ideally scattered on double-sided tape so that they can be treated from both sides. The skeleton of the tree is made of wire wrapped with string or putty; on the finished twigs the leaves are placed from the tips toward the trunk. Excess glue at a joint darkens once it has dried, so apply it truly in single drops.

The most frequent uses

• builders of their own trees and hedges
• for completing crowns made of other materials
• for camouflage nets and branches on equipment
• for a scattered layer of fallen leaves on the ground

The metal leaves are sold untreated; paints and glue are not in the package.