Oh What a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts Paul Napier I am building an O scale (1/48th) diorama layout of a World War 2 Royal New Zealand Air Force airstrip somewhere in the South West Pacific. Our air force operated in this area from 1942 until wars end in 1945. The diorama also features a 2 foot (12 mm) gauge railway that would have been built by the Imperial Japanese Navy to assist with construction of the airstrip. One thing that is common in almost every picture of these Pacific airstrips is a stand of coconut trees in the background. I figured I would need 60 to 70 coconut trees to run right along the back of the baseboards. I checked out what trees were available commercially, unfortunately I could find nothing even remotely close to the scale height of 30 m, the height to which coconut trees grow so scratch building was the only option. Right. Part of the airfield scene Paul is trying to replicate.
Making Coconut Palms
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1. This shows the stages of making a frond which grow 4 to 6 metres long. Cut thin wire to appropriate length allowing an additional one cm to imbed into top of the tree trunk. Place wire down the centre of the masking tape and fold the tape back on itself. Cut to shape with small sewing scissors and paint. Finally lightly bend leaves so they will hang down when placed on the tree.
2. The trunk is formed from three pieces of the thicker wire one being 1 to 2 cm longer to form the mounting pin. Wrap tape along the full length of the trunk then glue a small circle of cardboard at the bottom of the trunk with hot glue. Finally run hot glue along a few cm of
the trunk at a time and wrap cord around the trunk. These should be several layers of cord at both the base and top of the trunk. There is no need to be too tidy with the wrapping as this forms the rough rings of the trunk.
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NZ Model Railway Journal September 2018
3. The cord is covered with the texture gel. I find this easiest to do with your fingers. When dry paint the trunk.
