You know how sometimes you think a project will be easy? Just a simple afternoon. Then, you find yourself incredibly wrong? That was this project.

It started off simple: I made my trees years ago by wrapping simple HVAC filter around tree armatures, then spraying with adhesive glue, then dipping them into flock. They’ve survived for years of abuse as a result. They might need some TLC soon, but they’ve been abused for seven years—I literally throw them into bins and just super glue them back together when they break. I think this is pretty ideal, so I did the same for the bushes.

Only, I lacked a bush armature, so I instead cut bits of foam to create a support. I then attached the HVAC filter with adhesive glue, further sprayed it, and dipped it into flock.

After it settled, I… noticed that a lot of white was showing through. Turns out Gorilla Glue adhesive dries white. I should have looked into this, but it left me with a lot of work to do. I went about patching the exposed bits manually. Now that you know to look for the white, you can see that didn’t quite fully work out.

I went about further patching it with colored flock to make flowers, then decided to add flowers and other small plants around the bases to help distract from it. Honestly, I thought I had it right until I took these photos. The camera picks out the white pretty clearly, while the naked eye doesn’t quite.

I do think the aggregate effect works well, and in person they look a lot better. I’m sure on a board they’ll look great. Though… outside of a fantasy setting, I’m not sure where I’ll use them. I think originally I had some bocage like effect in mind. They almost work, but they don’t quite line up with each other, so the effect starts to feel a bit off. I’ll see how I feel when I finally throw them onto a board proper this weekend.

It’s a weird project. I came up with this concept years ago. I’m not entirely unhappy with the result. In fact, I’d say I’m happy, if a touch skeptical. I’m glad to be done and I’m sure they’ll see use, but they didn’t quite scratch the itch I had in mind. Odd, that.

I suppose sometimes you nail it, sometimes you just sorta get it right. Fair enough. Even after the bins upon bins of terrain I’ve made, I still have a lot to learn. That’s almost heartening.

We’ll say this much: I fully intend to set these bushes on fire in Desiderium this weekend. I’m not sure if that means I like them or hate them. You be the judge.