Hello I'm Phil

[philter4]

As stated above, I'm Phil. I just started modelling in the last few years and I am not sure which forum headings I should pay attention to the most, maybe some of you could direct me after you read this and see what my interests are. Almost everything I make is from scratch, I do have a couple of sculptors who work on some of the animal figures in my dioramas, others I make myself, the trees and plants I have learned from some of the best modelers I have ever seen, my feeble attempts at following their instructions are a testament to the skills they have.

When I started I used kits for many plants, brands like Noch, Busch, Kamiaizuri and ScaleRama are on display in some of the photos I will post but usually I start to make my own whenever I want. I also have a lot of foliage custom made, Micheal Hart from Hart of the South makes the best palm fronds I have ever seen but he does it in small scale, I make my dioramas in 1:22 scale so he custom laser cuts the palm fronds for me at the sizes and shapes I need so I am not doing it one frond at a time like I did when I started.

I love to make landscapes and I know this is a figure site, but to me each tree or plant I make is a figure. I want people who know plants to be able to tell the species of tree by just looking at it when I am done, and I have made some collections of different families. I have about 30 different palm species that I make, each one has it's own characteristics displayed so you can see the difference, I have made 5 of the 8 species of baobab trees, and the other 3 look so similar to each other that I would not be able to tell them apart if they were right in front of me. I have shown a few of my trees and at one show people did not believe they were not Bonsai until they picked them up and actually held them. Here are some photos of different trees on my dioramas, I have two in different stages of development, one of South Africa and the other India.

I hope you like the photos and I hope there are others here who also sculpt trees and plants as part of their collections.

 

[Mike S.]

Hi Phil,

Welcome to the forum. Lovely diorama work my friend!

 

[housecarl]

They look like holiday snaps.
Excellent work Phil,
Carl.

 

[Gellso]

Hi Phil,
You will fill n a great gap here mate.
Trees, shrubs and greenery are extremely hard to look realistic.
Look forward to seeing more of your work.
Grant

 

[Steve Ski]

Awesome work Phil, foliage being an essential part of any dio, you got it nailed. I do like the laser cut palms, does Mike fill orders quickly? I found his site after I did my plams for my Gun Truck dio, sure would have been a great addition and I wouldn't have had to fight the avocado leaves, lol. Great work Phil, love it!

Cheers, Ski.

 

[philter4]

Thanks everyone for your compliments, I am glad you all like them. I am hoping to find others who like to make the trees and landscaping here to talk shop and trade ideas for different foliage and ground work, for instance in the first photo even the rocks are sculpted out of clay and I am hoping to find easier methods that make more diverse pieces then just using the same molds over and over.

Steve Ski, I love the fronds done by Hart of the South, but I don't know how long he takes to fill orders, I have him custom make all of my fronds because my scale is so much bigger then what he normally does and it usually takes him a couple of weeks to make what I need. He will custom make the different species I need as well, but there is a high set up fee once I send him the drawings and the sizes but after the first run they get much cheaper so if I am making a single tree I still hand cut the fronds one at a time.

 

[tonydawe]

Beautiful work Phil, the level of detail and the amount of research you put into each diorama is breathtaking. I'd love to see some more examples of your work mate.

 

[gordy]

Welcome aboard Phil

 

[philter4]

Thanks Gordy and Tony, I'm glad I found the site, some of the work I have looked at is so fantastic I can't believe it!!! I have only been doing this for about 2 years so my sculpting skills are just beginning but some of the people here are incredible. That is why I like making the trees and plants, if I make a mistake no one, not even the tree, knows that it isn't perfect:lol:

If I could ask, where should I post the photos of my work? Tony, I have spent quite a bit of time in Northern Australia and Southern New Guinea, one of my other hobbies and my work is to collect animals, especially marine and fresh water tropical fish. I spent almost 3 years up and down From Fraser Island and Cape York to Southern New Guinea all of the way west to the bird's head and the islands off the coast there looking for new species. But back to modelling, since I am new to the site, when I am working on a project where should I post the details and photos? I will be working mainly on animal figures and trees.

Thanks again everyone for your comments and welcoming me to the forum,
Phil

 

[megroot]

Welcome Phil,
You're work on the plants and vegetatian is fabulous.

Marc

 

[balder]

Welcome Phil! fabulous work. I looked at your post in the beginner section on the forum. I'm looking forward to seeing more of your work and step-by-step posts. Have you ever done any coniferous trees (spruce,etc)? I'm puzzling over how to make good looking ones in 1/16 scale.

 

[philter4]

Welcome Phil! fabulous work. I looked at your post in the beginner section on the forum. I'm looking forward to seeing more of your work and step-by-step posts. Have you ever done any coniferous trees (spruce,etc)? I'm puzzling over how to make good looking ones in 1/16 scale.

Thanks, I am very glad you all like my work. I have just started a thread in ABSOLUTE BEGINNER TALK on sculpting a tree that will be a 3 part post, the first one is the planning stage.

Balder, I do make coniferous trees, here is a pair of trees I made for my mother, she has a display of antique, hand carved duck decoys from some very famous carvers. Because of the height of the shelves the are on I used a 1:35 scale but it is actually a little easier to make the needles in larger scales.

When I get to the foliage part of the tree sculpting post I'll explain how to make foliage for evergreens and pine type trees but if you can't wait let me know and I can give you a preview of that section.