Well, it is done.  At least the first tranche of my jungle is complete.  Since the last post when I got the undergrowth in place I have added all of the low standing vegetation.  When everything was in place I went over the whole thing with some quick dry-brush highlights to differentiate the various plants.  This is a very fast process.  First I mixed my basic green with some cream and slapped that on the spiky, bushy plant at the centre of most pieces.  Do all of them then mix your next colour.  For the rubber plant types with bulbous leaves I went for a light green, for the spiky plants either a very yellow-green or just a yellow highlight.  That really makes the vegetation look varied and different but it is MUCH quicker to do at this stage than earlier.  Finally I added some grass around the edges.

That lot covers about 2’6″ square pretty densely.  However, I am going to go on to do some lower level jungle which can be used to supplement this lot or represent a different, less dense bush and some areas of bamboo which, if I am honest, I puzzling me at present as it looks like a horrible job if I want the dense clumps that I DO want.  Lots of drilling and sore thumbs looms large, but that’s for another day.
Now, what if my banana plantations I hear you cry?  Well, they are finished, albeit with some concerns about their robustness.  Here’s a couple of snaps of the completed items.

From normal eye to table distance, the paper bits look good enough as plant fibre and the freshly fallen green fronds break up the colour.  The added paper around the trunks looks better, I think, than the somewhat straight line plastic trunk.  However, I do know now that the big fault with these was my methods of construction and not the model.
Using superglue instead of plastic cement was the kiss of death, but also not doing proper prep with the individual parts caused major issues.  Let’s look at a dodgy image of the model and consider how it is constructed.

As you can see on the left, the tree trunk has a spiky bit at the top onto which three frond pieces are stacked, one at a time, to give the correct loom of relatively dense foliage.     In the centre we see how this should work, with the frond section fitting snugly against the neck of the trunk.  However, in order to achieve this you really need to use a pin vice drill to ensure that the fit is snug.  I didn’t bother, being a smart arse, and like the image on the right, my fronds did not sit snugly down onto the trunk, creating a weak point where the thin spike is taking the entire weight of the three sets of fronds.  All I can say is “what a pillock”.  It was a lazy schoolboy error and I paid the price for this.
Well, that that’s the theory. There remains the lasting doubt that the models are just not robust enough for wargaming, but to be fair I am now pretty convinced that the fault was mine.
With the next box I have made up, you can see that I ensured a tight fit.  This means that all of the trees have three sets of fronds because they fit properly,  That in itself adds strength.

And here they are on their bases.  Once again. I can highly recommend the Warbases terrain bases.  Life is so much easier when you don’t have to mess about with a  jig saw and sand paper in order to base stuff.

That’s all for today.  Hopefully some more bush related fun tomorrow although I am full on with a 1940 Pint Sized campaign which needs a fair bit of German translation so we shall see how much I get done.