1:35 Palm Stumps (5pcs)

Palms after the fighting

A palm snapped off is one of the strongest images of war in the tropics. A trunk broken in half, the frayed fiber at the break and a crown lying who knows where to one side say more about an artillery preparation than a heap of rubble. The five-piece set of stubs aims at exactly this motif and suits scenes from the Pacific islands, from Southeast Asia and on the African coast, where palm groves lined the roads.

The group the stubs belong to

The diorama program of the Spanish firm Acrylicos Vallejo is divided into numbered groups, and one whole group is set aside for stumps and trunks. It has seven items and besides the palm motifs it holds large broadleaf stumps, small stubs, lying logs and one massive fallen trunk. Because the group offers these types side by side, a scene can be set with several of them at once.

Painting wood without mistakes

A palm is painted differently from a broadleaf tree. The trunk is not smooth but covered with the remains of leaf bases, which make up a regular scaly field, and it is lighter and grayer than modelers expect. The base coat therefore belongs in a light gray-brown, a warmer and lighter wood tone with the fibers drawn out goes into the break of the trunk, and the shadows are built up with glazes. At the end a greenish cast is added at the foot, where the rain splashes. It is worth placing a few broken pieces of wood and a drift of sand around the trunk, because a broken palm never stands in tidy surroundings. If the scene captures fighting on a beach, washed-up plant remains and shells belong at the foot as well.