Sable Palm Trees & Cabbage Palms (Florida Palm Trees)

Here are some pictures showing how I made my Sable Palm Trees (State tree of Florida and South Carolina) for my Florida Terrain project. I'm planning on running skirmish level gaming (28mm) for ACW, AWI, Seminole War, Patriot War, and earlier eras (Dinosaurs), set in the State of Florida, Florida Territory or La Florida, depending on the era and ownership of the area known as Florida.

This same technique can be used to create trees and foliage for scales from 54mm on down to about 15mm.

Typical Florida palm scrub or hammock areas. 

Sabal Palmettos

 Typical Florida palm scrub or hammock areas. Cabbage or 'Sawtooth' palm in foreground

 A bunch of plastic foliage found at Michael's craft supply store.

 Individual 'branches are separated from the main stem. Notice each 'leaf' represents a palm 'frond'.

 Here, the 'fronds' have been removed from the stem.  Leave enough for the 'front' stalk.

 The Construction process: (1) Cut a wood dowel to the appropriate length. For 28mm, I used a 1/4" or 3/8" wood dowel. Use a smaller diameter for smaller scales and a larger diameter for larger scales. (duh!) (2) Wrap the dowel in masking tape, starting at the base and working upwards to create the palm 'rings'. (3) Glue (I used hot glue) a wood bead to the top. (4) Start gluing and layering the palm fronds, larger to smaller, from the bottom to the top.  The lower fonds will represent the dead/flapping palm fronds. (sorry, they didn't have landscapers back then that regularly removed the dead fronds.)

 (5) I spray the top 'foliage' with a forest green spray paint. (6) I dry brush the fronds with lighter greens/yellows, with the lightest colors at the top of the tree. I paint the lower fronds with browns and tans.

(7) I paint the trunk a tan color and highlight the rings. (8) Lastly, I drill holes in a 1/8" mdf base, and glue in the trees.

 (9) Finish off the base with assorted foliage and details.  Can you see the Seminoles hiding?  The other plastic plants are other pieces from various Michael's plastic plants and ferns.  You just have to find the right ones that look to scale. Think small.

 Here is some of my other 'Florida' fauna.  The plastic palms are from a Chinese distributor and can be found cheaply and easily on ebay.  They work well for understory trees, cabbage palms, and 'Sawtooth' palms. These haven't received a final paint job or highlighting, just based and flocked for a game. 

Some other foliage to represent some of the pines, cypress, bushes and ferns abundant in the Florida wilderness.