Desert plants

[nachoman]

Face it, few people model open deserts, meaning scarce information exists regarding modeling desert plants. I've seen a few articles in magazines and a few threads on the internet, but by and large information on modeling forests dwarfs that of deserts by about 100 to 1. In this thread I will explain how I model some desert plants indigenous to southwest North America.

By comparison, modeling a generic forest is easy. From a distance, only a trained botanist knows the difference between the various hardwood or coniferous trees in a mass of foliage. That's definitely an advantage for the forest modeler who can create a background of rather generic trees and satisfy the average viewer. In deserts, the visibility of individual plants and the extreme variation amongst species makes a "generic" approach impossible. Not only is the variation amongst cactus species profound, but North American deserts also contain unique trees, shrubs, and pure oddities like ocotillo and agave. Techniques used to create more humid environment vegetation simply won't work.

As a caveat, I should mention that I don't like using natural materials. I've had bad luck using natural materials in the past, with insects and with dried materials becoming too dry and fragile after a few years. A simple sneeze becomes a scale tornado. That means, I won't be exploring options for making these plants using dried weeds, lichen, or spanish moss.

I'll update this thread periodically as I figure out how to model each species.

[P5se Camelback]

This should prove to be a very interesting thread, Kevin. Although I doubt I'll be modeling any flora from the arid areas of this land, I am nonetheless fascinated by them and their ability to exist on sheer desire alone, or so it would seem.

I am subscribed to this thread.

[nachoman]

First up is the century plant. This plant is a type of agave that lives between 5-40 years. A description of the plant can be found here:

http://wc.pima.edu/Bfiero/tucsonecology/...s_paag.htm

The plant grows as a rosette up to about 5 feet in diameter. When conditions are right, the plant will send up a huge bloom stalk to about 12-14 feet high. The top of the stalk opens up to several branches, and puffy yellow flowers. The plant blooms once, and then dies.

To make my model plants, I walked up and down the plastic flower aisle at the local craft store until I found suitable materials. First up is this cluster of small flowers. The individual flowers resemble the rosette of the century plant. Unfortunately, they only scale out to about 3 scale feet in HO, so my plants will be a little small.

   

Once I cut off the individual flowers, I shoved the stem into a block of foam, and painted them using a "cactus green" color craft paint.

   

For the bloom stalk, I found this plastic asparagus fern.

   

[Ralph]

Great stuff Kevin! Looking forward to more of your techniques.
Ralph

[nachoman]

Next, I took some scissors and a hobby blade to the asparagus fern. I cut off all the leaves except for those near the end, and trimmed the end leaves shorter. This made the bloom stalk.

   

I then drilled a hole through the rosette, cut the blunt end off the stalk, and shoved the end of the stalk through the rosette until the overall plant height was about 12-14 scale feet.

   

Next, I painted the stalk brown.

   

[nachoman]

I painted the top sides of the stalk "branches" with yellow craft paint, and while the paint was wet, I sprinkled on a greenish yellow fine ground foam. Yellow ground foam would be better, except I did not have any.

   

After the paint had dried, I shook off the excess foam, and then painted over the foam with more yellow paint.

   

[nachoman]

I also found this pine branch in the plastic flower aisle, and thought it would be good for the basal part of the century plant. It's a little on the large size, and takes a little more work to trim down and paint.
   

I like the results, but I think the finished plant is a little too big. Plants are one of those layout items that often look best if you make them a little smaller than scale. It makes your layout appear larger, and creates a depth illusion.

   

[nachoman]

Next up is the prickly pear cactus. These cacti grow in many places, even in humid and cold regions. I've personally seen them growing in Wyoming and Alabama, and about every place in between. But, they are larger and much more visible in the open desert. The fruit and pads of these plants are edible, with the fruit used to make jellies and candy, and the pads common in south-of-the-border cuisine. The wikipedia page provides a brief description:

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This plant is easily spotted on hillsides, yet is difficult to make to scale. An HO scale prickly pear would have pads too small to easily make, and I think the results would be less recognizable to those with poor eyesight. As a result, my model prickly pears are about 25-50% larger than scale, and much less dense. Nonetheless, I think they adequately capture the characteristics of this plant.

I start out with paper twist ties pilfered from the produce section of my local supermarket, some scrapbooking scissors that produce a scalloped cut, and various pliers and cutters.

   

I use the scissors to cut along each side of the twist tie next to the wire. The result looks like a string of joined circles.

   

I then take the cut twist ties, cut them to an appropriate length, and bend them in half.

   

[nachoman]

I then nest a few of the twist ties together, and twist the bottom portion to form a base. Sometimes I have to put a drop of glue on the base to glue the individual branches together, as the twisting alone is often not enough to hold it together well. Next, I fan out out the branches.

   

I continue twisting and fanning out the branches to give a more natural shape. The individual pads of this plant are typically at an angle to each other, so with two pairs of pliers I slightly twist each branch between the pad segments.

   

Next comes paint. Again, a block of foam helps hold things while I paint.

   

[nachoman]

With a little india ink weathering, they are ready for planting. I haven't tried making a prickly pear with blooms or the red fruit yet. Perhaps gluing on a few of the woodland scenics "apples" would look good, or maybe I can find some little red beads at the craft store.

[Ralph]

Fantastic! The prickly pear is my favorite!

[faraway]

They are looking very good (as far as the opinion of a German counts for dessert plants)

[ezdays]

They are looking very good (as far as the opinion of a German counts for dessert plants)

Well, take the opinion of a long-time Arizona desert dweller, this look great and very realistic. I'd never had thought to model a century plant, but this gives me the inspiration to try.

[Sumpter250]

Just for reference:
           
This is a distinctive looking plant. You've done a nice job modeling it.
If some other pictures I've seen are any clue, these plants grow rather tall.
This link will show just how tall:
http://www.longwoodgardens.org/CenturyPlant2007.html

[nkp_174]

Great thread and great results!

When I get to scenery on my Oahu Railway (or rather, building some dioramas to test scenery!), I'll be doing this same sort of thing as there isn't too much out there for modeling tropical island scenery and I don't want to use natural materials either. Interestingly, portions of the Oahu Railway have a good deal in common with desert modeling...even cactus!

Keep up the good work!