Making palm trees

Well, I recently started playing the new mod Plan of Attack, and wanted
to map for it. Alot of people seem to be going with the destroyed urban
area type theme, but I wanted to try something a bit different, and
wanted to try a tropical island. Now, the only palm tree I could see
was the topless one in the CS:S models. I figured I could try to make
my own then.

Now, the question: Should I make them out of brushes (really big trees)
or try to do some modeling and make the trees in that. They are going
to be pretty big, and maybe could be made with brushes, but I dont know
what would be better. There are going to be alot of trees, mind you,
pretty much taking place of the walls, so I am not sure which way to go.

I searched, and didnt find anything. I know there is a pack with trees
on this site for download, but those dont really say tropical island to
me.

Thanks in advance for any help.

"When ever possible one should model static geometry", almost a direct
quote from the SDK document. Modeling should always be done. In your
case I think it would be the right thing to do, beacuse you will have
to have lots of brushes to make up a palm tree. From there I cant tell
you what to do, because im not a modeler myself, nor do I know of any
model packs that would contain palm trees. Good luck.

I agree with omega. Definitely model them. They'll look
much much better than anything you could make out of brushes.

Alright, figured as much. Don't know how good it will be, as I tried
doing a tut earlier, and I don't know if I can model too well. Although
I guess it would be better to take some time to learn and have a decent
looking map then rush it.

Thanks for the help guys.

Actually, the "topless" one from CS:S has a bit that goes in the skybox (at 4 scale) which is only a problem if you plan to use the HL2 skybox content in addition to the palm trees, if that helps.

Oh, so it just makes it look like there are tops on the palm trees
then? Because for the map I have planned, I want to have pretty much
like a ceiling of leaves and such, in most areas atleast. I think I
will stick with the modeling for now, try that out, see how it goes.
Wouldn't hurt to learn it.

Thanks again for the info.