Conifer Trees & Hedges – WIP 2/3

The second stage of my terrain-building project is complete — time to share some behind-the-scenes notes from the workbench!

Building the structure

This week was all about shaping the main structure for both the conifer trees and the hedges, continuing the process I started in the previous post — hopefully this time without any surprises 😉. It was the most systematic part of the process so far — repetitive, but satisfying. By the end of it, I had 16 conifers standing tall (or at least pretending to), ranging from 4 to 7 inches in height, and 18 hedge sections in various lengths: 4 pieces at 4", 8 at 3", and 6 at 2". Altogether, that’s around 52 inches of hedges, which should be more than enough for a few decent home skirmishes!

From trunks to branches

For the trees, I used coconut fibre mats to form the branches and upper structure. The fibres were glued to the wooden trunks with PVA glue, and then fixed in place with a generous amount of hairspray — a surprisingly reliable combo that stiffens everything nicely. But with that amount of hairspray, I definitely recommend working with the window open.

Once dry, I gave the whole set an uneven brown spray coat to bring in subtle tonal variation and hide any rough transitions between materials. It’ll all get covered with greenery later on, but those deeper tones will still peek through, adding a bit of depth — hopefully! — to the final look.

Surprisingly smooth progress

To my astonishment, this stage went unusually smoothly — no major setbacks, no glue disasters, and not even a single moment of chaos at the workbench. That feels… suspicious. I can’t help but wonder what kind of mischief is waiting for me in the next step. Something tells me Merry and Pippin are already plotting 😉

What’s next

The next stage will be all about basing and foliage — easily the most creative (and chaotic) part of the process. That’s where the trees and hedges will finally come to life. It’ll also be the stage where I try a few new things, including testing a different glue formula… So wish me luck — my elves are finally about to get a proper taste of a miniature forest!

More Middle-earth greenery coming soon 🌿