Modelling berries in 4mm scale. Any ideas?

[mike morley]

Plan A was to cull some plastic bristles from a cheap paint/wallpaper/toothbrush and prod their ends at a hot soldering iron in the hope that they'd partially melt and the resulting globules form something acceptably berry-like.  In practice they just shrivelled and stringed (strung?)

 

Plan B might just about qualify as a variation on the same theme.

I got some fine copper strands from some mains flex, dipped their tips in flux then poked them at the same hot soldering iron, which this time had been well tinned.  The hope, obviously, was that I'd get acceptably berry-like beads of solder on the tips of the strands.

The theory was fine and given enough time it might have worked, but the results were so inconsistent that it would probably take most of a lifetime to accumulate enough berries to adorn a single modest Rowan tree.  In the process I would also have created enough larger beads to have created an orange grove, a respectable harvest of grapefruit or enough pumpkins to supply an HO, US-based layout set at Halloween.

 

Can anyone think of a Plan C?

 

Even better, has anyone got a Plan that they've tried and knows works?

[Ian Fisher]

How about looking at some jewellery making beads?

 

Not sure if they go tiny tiny but there are many thousands available.

 

Or how about coloured air drying clay Fimo?

[Jaz]

There is a railway product that does small red and small orange balls......i'll go look I have some somewhere, found products not got label....hang on

[corax67]

You may like to try making armatures from fine wire splayed at the end, dipped in PVA then dipped in something like this from Woodland Scenics which may represent berries to an acceptable standard for your needs.

 

http://woodlandscenics.woodlandscenics.com/show/item/T48

[Jaz]

woodland scenics t47 fruit you get orange and red small balls

don't get them wet the colour runs....try a small amount and glue with say copydex rather than ova

[truffy]

It depends on the size of the berry IRL, I guess. Those fruits look more like apple size. Coloured sand, perhaps?

[Coombe Barton]

Prodding plastic with a soldering iron is too hot. If you just melt a bristle by holding it above a heat source (I use the cooker) and wait until the blob has formed - surface tension will do that. What you have to do is to introduce the end of the fibre gently until the blob forms then get it out of the heat pretty darned quick.

 

I'm trying this with optical fibres for gas lamps.

[Dagworth]

As Truffy says, what type of berry and how big are they in real life? I can't think of any berry larger than a loganberry that is about an inch long, that's 1/3 of a millimeter in 4mm scale, Blackberries etc are smaller.  At that size you are down to scenic scatter and hairspray.

 

Andi

[depot1]

Holding fibre optic cable to a heat source creates a berry like blob at the end. Tried it with 0.25mm cable and it works fine, the cable is really thin which looks good and it can be easily painted.

[mike morley]

Andi

 

I know what you mean and agree entirely.  Rowan berries aren't big, and there aren't many berries found in the UK that are bigger.

However, there is a prequel to Plan A that I didn't mention for the sake of simplicity, where I simply dabbed the ends of the bristles in red paint.  In terms of pure scale it was probably close on right, but it fell a long way short of looking right and thereby prompted the aforementioned Plans A and B.

 

All of the above suggestions will be tried and are gratefully received, although I have to admit that Coombe Barton's was the one that struck the most powerful chord so will be tried first.

 

As an aside that might be useful to others, if you crop some bristles from a Bargain-Bucket wallpaper brush from your local Poundland/Poundstretcher/99p Shop etc, paint them green then daub them in PVA and roll them in dark ground foam you will get some really good 4mm scale stinging nettles!

[BRealistic]

I've been wondering what to use as a 4mm door knob... and was thinking 'hundreds and thousands' might do!  Probably too big.. and too big for berries as well??

[Dagworth]

I've been wondering what to use as a 4mm door knob...

Peco track pin

 

Andi

[Coombe Barton]

If you want a brass door knob then brass lacemaking pins from Hobbycraft. Other sources are available

[Chubber]

...semolina granules coloured with food dye?

[Removed a/c]

It depends on the size of the berry IRL, I guess. Those fruits look more like apple size. Coloured sand, perhaps?

This was the first thing that came to my mind as well. 

[Clive Mortimore]

Hi Mike

 

Unless you are close up to a berry laiden tree or bush you only realy notice that there are small red or purple areas within the foliage. Black coloured berries do not show up until you are almost apon the bush. So if you are modelling in 4mm can I suggest the follwing method.

 

Use rubberised horse hair cut to the shape of a bush.

Glue on some corse Woodlands grass for the foliage.

Dry brush red or dark purple paint on the bush. Only the sides, berries do not tend to be on the top of a bush.

 

Instead of dry brushing I could come round with my airbrush, that always gives a good splatter pattern when the paint is not mixed right.

 

Of course not all berries are seen that easy even when walking pass them, thankfully most people near where I live missed the dewberries http://lalows.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/more-from-new-kit.html this year. I had a lovely dewberry crumple after a mornings picking.

[Clive Mortimore]

Hi Mike

 

Just re-read your OP, have a look at this photo of a Rowan tree and I think my paint the foliage method would work.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Rowan_tree_20081002b.jpg

[Removed a/c]

or how about a toothbrush and flicking  the paint at the bush? 

[mike morley]

The "toothbrush flick" method is fine for randomly distributed fruit and even better for blossom, but rowan berries hang in clusters which don't really suit it.  This has been a particularly good year for Rowan berries, to the extent that having never noticed them before, I could not help but be aware of them everywhere I went this autumn.

 

I had a go at Coombe Barton's method using a candle and suspect that would probably work if I could find the right plastic - which I haven't yet.

 

Next on the agenda is a combination of my own prequel to Plan A and Clive's dry-brushing technique, only using thick, lumpy paint.

 

And Clive, if you're coming round, forget the airbrush, just bring some dewberry crumble with you!

[Coombe Barton]

I had a go at Coombe Barton's method using a candle and suspect that would probably work if I could find the right plastic - which I haven't yet.

 

Candles will give out carbon that may well incorporate itself into the plastic. Under some circumstances and plastics that may be OK, depends on the effect

[mike morley]

I didn't realise that.  I'll have another go using an old cigarette lighter.

 

As an aside, I just glanced out of the front window to see if the dustman had been yet and absently noted that yesterday's frost didn't wipe out the fuchsias.  Then it occurred to be that fuchsias are the perfect candidate for the Britfarmers "toothbrush flick" system.

[Joseph_Pestell]

I can only think of two solutions that are going to give a realistic result:

1) set the scene of the model at a different time of year (no berries);

2) give up on 4mm scale and trade up to 10mm scale.

[Coombe Barton]

I didn't realise that.  I'll have another go using an old cigarette lighter.

 

Cigarette lighters give off carbon as well - you need a blue flame as a gas cooker or an electric ring - both at a distance.

[mike morley]

Success!

 

Coombe Barton's gas cooker system and the bristles from a Sainsbury's washing up brush proved to be the winning combination.

A slightly more delicate and trickier runner up used the bristles from a Poundland wallpaper pasting brush.

 

One word of warning for anyone trying the same thing - when (and I mean when, not if) you set one of the bristles alight it will burn down really, really quickly.  If you are holding it in your fingers you will get scorched.  Use tweezers.

 

Off to Sainsbury's now for a replacement washing up brush!

[bécasse]

The starting point for this sort of scenic work always has to be - what does the real thing look like, particularly when viewed from the sort of scaled-up distance that the model will be seen from. (Yes, I know that leaves a problem when mister ace photographer comes along and takes a photo from 20cm that will be blown up to a full page in a mag!)

 

The best thing is to go out and take photos oneself, but, given the fact that nature is seasonal, a bit of googling will often produce some excellent photos on the web.

 

As has been said above bright (gloss) paint will generally represent berries very well. However, if they typically hang in bunches (think grapes, for example), one needs to model the bunches before applying the paint. Generally, little pieces of foam* or sponge can be used for this, preferably of a dark (green/grey/brown) colour and attached to the tree or bush with dabs of pva (use a cocktail stick or tooth pick), checking carefully against photos to ensure that they are placed to look natural. When everything is thoroughly dry touch paint them, starting at the back of the bush/tree so that hopefully practice makes perfect by the time you get to the most obvious side.

 

* I find that packets of ground foam intended for scatter invariably contain some slightly larger bits and these would be ideal.