Hobby Tip - Making Miniature Leaves from Birch Seed Pods

Here's a quick tutorial on making miniature leaves for basing miniatures and terrain making. This is a very simple tutorial and will save you a lot of money if you used to buy these from hobby stores/sites.

Of course the main thing you will need is to find Birch trees growing in your near vicinity. These Birch seed pods were picked around the end of May in the UK, there's a couple of weeks leeway either way from April-June.

When you're on the hunt to get your own this (the image above) is the type of seed pod you are looking for.

I made sure to gather a good amount to make a large batch that will last me quite some time. I may have taken them a little early they were still very springy and green, but they still workable.

Simply grip the pod between your fingers and twist, as it comes apart it should look like the image above. The drier they are (toward the end of their growth when they are about to drop the seeds) the easier they will be to twist apart.

Above is what you get once separated. These tiny leaves are actually the chaff that encases the Birch seeds. You can dry them a little more by laying them out on a baking tray and putting them in the oven on a very low heat (or in the residual heat after you've used the oven to prepare dinner).

I took a shot with my little finger tip just so you can see how tiny these things are.

Here's an example of where I used them on this female Paladin figure. You can fix them in numerous ways, superglue, P.V.A. Glue, matte varnish. And they take paint, inks and washes very well. You can pre-colour them with a drop of colour mixed into a batch of the dried leaves if you wish.

I hope you find this tip useful.

Take care.