Terrain Tutorial: Hedgerows Revisited.

     Back to the dark photos of my camera and some terrain making. I am usually finding myself making some terrain here and there for Kalissa and I's games when we are not making them for other people. In this case, I decided that we need to upgrade our standards for our Bolt Action Tournament terrain. It is not that most of our stuff is subpar by any means, but we have been using hedgerows from my first terrain making projects and they are showing their age after seven years. This new process of hedgerows is a combination of past work concepts and a little bit of new ones. So let's have it a go!
     First, we need our materials. Below are the following things you will need if you chose to make the same type of hedgerows.

1.  Hard Board.
2.  Tall screws. These are based on the height you want.
3.   A drill.
4.   An  orbital jigsaw.
5.   Hot glue gun.
6.   Super Glue.
7.   Glue Sticks.
8.   Scrub pads.
9.   Sea Foam armatures or lichen
10.   Leaf Flock like SuperLeaf or Noch Leaves.
11.    3m Spray Adhesive
12.    Black Primer Spray Paint.
13.    A Metal Fork.
14.   Light Green Spray paint (optional).

   The first item on our list is the hardboard that you can pick up at a hardware store in the lumber section. This also can be found in some craft and hobby stores, but you will pay more for it. The board I get is 2' x 4' at a 1/4" thickness for easy cutting. It might cost around $5.00 per sheet. It is great for making all types of bases. I used hardboard to make all of my American Civil War stands and woods bases. You can use an orbital saw to cut various shapes to make your future gaming boards more tactically interesting rather than sticking with round or square bases. This also opens our hedgerows up to new natural shape possibilities. The picture below illustrates this idea.

   As you can see, we can make some different types of angles and curves that a lot of terrain avalible pre-made tends to forget about. This picture is also part of the next step. I decided on a certain height for my hedgerows to roughly be and bought screws around that height. In the shapes I cut out, I pre-drilled holes for the screws and screwed them in with the points sticking up. I did not bother with dolling the tips or cutting them, in case I need hedgerows to defend myself in hostile situations. Actually, they are going to be covered with scrubbing pads. Besides, I would hope that gamers out there are not slapping your terrain at will.
    After you have made you shapes and added screws, it is time for you main base for you hedgerow. You take one of the scrubbing pads and score them with your fork that you plan on using on both sides. The plan is to break up the fibers to make them more fluff. Then, you can tear them and shape them more to your liking with out having boxy  pointed edges. Below are some photos of this.

This covers about two screws at about two inches apart.

     When you have done this to enough scrubbing pads, you can now hot glue them to the screws and base. Note: some pieces might rip off during your scoring. Keep those, because they might be useful for filling in areas. Also, I have been told that you could place scrubbing pads in a blender, but I honestly do not think that would be good for the blender or last long enough for the amount I plan to do. Below is were we are at in steps after some hot gluing.

       On the picture above, some of us my just flock this. And in reality, it would mostly likely look fine. But it is the extra steps that make a difference. This is especially true when you do not have that much more to do. This is where the Sea Foam armatures and/or lichen come to play. Lichen is pretty easy to find and cheap. You can get it in most every country in the world. The Sea Foam I use is from Scenic Express and cannot be shipping to a lot of countries. I know Australia is one of those on the list where it cannot be imported. Essentially, the Sea Foam is a dried up plant. I am sure there may be some other options in your local area.
     Either way, the Sea foam is to give the hedgerow a more natural 3-D look. I just hot glue them in various spots to break up flatter surfaces or areas the need work. This is useful for hiding some spot you might not be satisfied with. Once, you have your armatures and such glued on, you want to take it outside and prime it. You do not have to used black. Brown is also effective. The results of the before and after priming are below.

It looks like a weird sea cucumber!

You can also add happy trees to your hedges like Bob Ross did in his paintings. " I think a happy trees likes living between these bushes!"

The black makes sure there are shadows and it blends it all together.

     Now, we are really for a sign of spring. Let us add some leaves. Some people I have seen on Facebook groups like the Terrainiacs like to use hair spray. This does work, but I like using 3M Spray Adhesive. I use the 77 version. 45 is common. 90 is the strongest. It is pretty simple to work with. You spray you hedgerow until it looks like it was left outside in a frost. Then, you simply add you leaf flock. I tend to mix some different colors to give some depth. I am sure this process can work with smaller scales as well.  Below, is the results you are aiming for.

       As for optional paints, I find that light greenish yellow spray paint lightly sprayed over the top of the leafs gives a good impression of sunlight. I have not do this on these yet, since I plan on doing 60 feet of these. Either way, remember that you can do this. And hey! If you make too many, you can always sell some on eBay to get your material costs back! Just remember to have fun and you will be happy on how your project looks on the tabletop. Thanks for reading.