45. Trees and bushes

Last time I wrote about modular ruins, now I want to take a look on my trees and bushes. It might end up being a pretty short post, or like a showcase. Because Im mostly not really satisfied with my results... So to write a tutorial about bad methods may not be very useful. However a "How not to make it" could be edifying...

At first, what ended up not that bad. The bushes and fallen trees:

1. The bushes were pretty easy to make. I cut some bases out of PVC foamboard. Unfortunately I made them square shaped, and that doesn't help to blend into the table. Regular shapes may work for artificial scenery (like the ruins last time), but not for natural pieces. Doesn't matter, its not that bad... I carved a small, long heap out of XPS foam, glued it to the base, and stuck small branch pieces into. It serves as a skeleton for the bush, so short wire pieces would have been fine too. With acrylic paste (or the much cheaper: wood-filler) I blended the borders of the XPS core into the base, and after drying I painted it (primer and base coat in one with a mix of water-PVA glue-paint in a roughly 1/3-1/3-1/3 , as by the fortress). At the end, I applied some sand and static grass around the base, and then glued on (PVA)  the actual bushes: preserved moss. At the very end some scenic glue (diluted PVA) on it, and its ready.
2. The fallen trees were even easier. Just glued some oven-dried branches (I found some beautiful pieces, full with lichen) on the bases, and than basically the same process as before: blended them in with acrylic paste, primer-basecoat (but not on the branches!), sand-grass, a piece of preserved moss on one end (to have heavy cover in one end and sight-blocker on the other) and scenic glue. I really love the natural look of these.
   

Now comes the worse part: my trees... First of all, I searched for some branches, which seemed to fit the scale. After that I glued (and screwed, with a small wood-screw, which gives a lot of stability to bigger trees) to a base. The base was small (Mistake 1, its not very stable) square shaped (Mistake 2, doesn't blend in) PVC foamboard, without beveling the edges (Mistake 3, doesn't blend in). Then came the painting, just a regular, something brownish-geryish with dark wash and light drybrush. And then the foliage... On two trees I used the same moss (flavored with a little bit of static grass), as before, and they turned out ok.

But at the other two, I wanted to be very smart (spoiler: didn't go well), and used preserved lichen as smaller branches, and then dried parsley with spray adhesive. Big mistake. The parsley looks good, like small leafs, its green, and its cheap. But it wont adhere... I tried scenic glue, spray adhesive (again) and innumerous layers of varnish, but nothing helped... Those trees are like a snails: they always leave a trail behind. Anyway, here they are:

The basing was the same, as before. I may upgrade the base sizes of the first ones, but the second ones may be the first parts, which I will throw in the garbage bin...