Materials

• Plastic aquarium plants. The example above uses Type B, but most types would be suitable.
• Squirrel chewed pine cones - with the cones get stripped back to their cores.
• Mounting board or heavy card. (For the base)

Construction

Cone Preparation
The only thing you will need to do to the cone itself is to flatten off the bottom. I used a circular sawblade attachment for a modelling drill, but you could also use a coarse file. Alternatively you could build the base up around the bottom of the cone with filler. Stick it to a base cut from mounting board or heavy card with PVA.

Foliage
You could use almost any type of foliage, but I've found the ones with small leaves seem to work best. Cut them up so that there are little sprigs of 2 or 3 leaves, then put a generous blob from the glue gun on the end and poke them into a crevice in the cone. The examples at the top all use type B foliage. One sprig makes two pine cones. Each of the first two tiers on the sprig was used in one piece at the tip of the cone. The rest of the foliage was cut into smaller pieces. Note how the foliage becomes darker and more widely spaced further down the trunk.

In this example I have used one with more fronded leaves, which demonstrates how the same technique can be used for a very different looking plant.

Painting

Luckily almost no painting at all is required. Just give the cone a gentle drybrush to bring out the texture. I use 'Beige' Sandtex.