Run through the jungle: plastic plants for dioramasTutorialPrevNextPrevNext

Hello everyone,

celebrating the success of my photo I want to thank you all for liking it and explain a little how I did the jungle.



Artificial plants (AP for short) were frowned upon by me first, since I always thought they look really cheap on close inspection. Of course, they can only be killed with fire or maybe really strong chemicals, other than regular plants which always die pretty fast on me. They are also easy to clean, just put them in the shower. And they are not fragile. Ok, so at some point I got me a bunch of them and found out they can be useful if they are being kept in the background of photos, preferably blurred.

Over time I collected a few APs, so here are my tips on getting them:

1. of course, since they are kind of robust and can be cleaned easily, try to get used ones. This is especially true for artificial Bonsai trees since they are not cheap if you want a decent quality.

2. if you can, have a look at them first before spending money. You'll get a feel for the quality quickly because there's probably one big factory somewhere in China that produces most of the parts they are made of ;)
Also have a smell - it's cheap plastic and it can really stink if it's new. Another advantage of buying used ones.

3. for Bonsai trees I found that here in Germany the brand Gasper are really well made www.gasper.de/e...
since all of these are imported, you can find them at various sellers if you search long enough, Google picture search is your friend. Again, look for used ones anywhere people might sell their old home decoration stuff.
For the jungle diorama I got two podocarpus bonsai
www.ottoversand...
and had to get rid of the bowls they came in. The tree trunks are actually glued to a piece of styrofoam, which is put into the bowl and then some kind of concrete is poured on top of it to make it look like soil. So I took a hammer and cracked the thin concrete until I could pull all of it out of the bowl (it doesn't stick that well, no problem) and removed the trunk from the debris. Without the bowl the tree won't stand, so I just screwed it to a piece of thick plastic.

An important point with trees is that you probably have to modify the branches so that you look at the top side with the foliage, rather than the ugly underside with the foliage connecting pieces. It's not that hard to do, I use a lighter to heat parts of the branches and bend them until I'm satisfied with the look (be careful not to burn anything, including your fingers!)

4. for large pieces of foliage, look for artificial hedges. They are a lot cheaper than single APs for aquariums and so on. Here in Germany I got them here kunstheckeguens...
This site has product videos that show the size of the leaves quite well.
The hedge parts are basically a large quantity of single branches stuck onto plastic grids. That gives you big mats of foliage to easily work with.


5. for soil I used pine bedding for pets, sold in zoo shops. It looks good and makes less mess than real earth.

Generally, when you're building dioramas always keep your eyes open for suitable materials. Hardware shops and pet shops are great sources, just watch the pricing, especially pet stuff doesn't come cheap. Happy hunting!