Making 28mm olive trees (part 1)

I need olive trees for my Bronze Age Aegean board - and indeed for all Mediterranean gaming. Olives are ubiquitous in the area now, and were in the past. However, the commercial options for wargamers are very limited, very expensive, and don't look overly like olive trees.

What I'm looking for is something that has been grown and tended for generations. A gnarly, twisted, thick trunk, kept low to make harvesting the olives easier, with low hanging branches. So over the weekend I set out to make a proof of concept. The above picture is an olive grove around the Mycenaean tholos tomb at Amphissa, but any would do for inspiration.

Starting with semi-flexible wire left over from a long forgotten project of my lads, I twisted some rough shapes to use as armatures.

Over these, I (further) twisted green stuff, making sure to have nice thick trunks and much thinner branches.

Using an old knife and a plastic rod about 5mm in diameter, I smooshed and prodded until I had something that, when covered by paint and foliage, might resemble olive wood. 

I made sure that all the branches were a little above head height (here with a 28mm Eureka miniature who will soon be Aeneas). 

So the next step will be undercoating and then painting - mostly by layers of dry brushing I suspect. The most appropriate foliage I could find arrived today in the post, so it should be a straight forward process to finish them off in part 2 (coming when I get the chance!).