I use dead pine needles from my local forest and hot glue them into clumps which can be trimmed later, I also find this method great for reed beds around water margins. Dead pine needles also make excellent thatch for roofing! ATB, Louie :)

I now want to see each and every one of those incorporated into a project

Haha I was doing cheap paint brushes but I haven't though of just buy heads of sweeper brooms. lol You sir, care my hero!

ROFLMAO!!!!I bought 2 dishwashing brushes the other day, they were 99 cent each so dirt cheap. They have nice light clumps and the handles can be turned into ornamental collumns. The wife was happy when I got them because she tought I was going to use them to do the dishes.....You should've seen the poor girl's face when realisation sunk in :-D :-D :-D

I had a question, and Mel, you are always there to answer it, 4 years before I knew I wanted to know! I really wanted to know if I could use natural grass, and low and behold, you said I could and how to make it work. You are a champion among men!

I bought a nail brush and dipped it in pva upside down so only the ends of the hairs at the very bottom got glue on them. Once it was dry I cut off each bundle and I got something like 80 premade grass clumps for less than 10 minutes total worktime and 24 hours drying time between the two stages.

Great advice and info. Keep up the excellent work. Thanks

Your videos open my eyes to countless possibilities, i need to expand my imagination ,,,,,,,,i'm trying

Very good ideas mel, always keep your eyes open for anything you could use and cheap is best.

Excellent. More simple terrain-making goodness. Very useful info.

Brilliant! Thanks for sharing all these tips.

Another cheap alternative that you might consider is sisal twine. It's cheap. Cut a length and pull it apart, then gather the strands to the desired thickness. Maybe dry brush it. The only thing that might be a hindrance is that it isn't very stiff, but a little wash of watered down pva should help it hold the shape you want. I've seen a guy cut a length, fold it in half to look like a shoot of vegetation, press the bottom of the shoot directly into polystyrene, and put some glue there to hold it in place.

Ooh Great! Grass! I will be ripping handfuls out of the common here in Sunny Hackney! Great! I have really cheap brushes that I was thinking about using for my 1:6th horse who has taken over everything in my little action figure world...I can't think of anything except making harness and grass! Omg doormat jute stuff! Much cleaner than hamster straw and sawdust for the stable diorama! You are a genius!

Cheapo is the way to go! Nice job Mel.

Thank You Soooo Much for these Great Ideas🙏🏽. Best Tutorial👍🏾👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽

Even if it sounds silly, but my german shepherd looses a lot of hair in changing seasons and I am able to pull bulks of undercoat out of his fur. These have a nice beige colour, a little dark brown at the button and come in nice bundles in the size of the first brush you showed and every hair which ends on my terrain doesn't end on my carpet, so a win win situation :) Have a nice weekend, bye

Thanks for the tips Mel!

Keep ramblin and I'll keep watchin.

The welcome mat looks good, though I may need the Woodland Scenics stuff to get down to the 10mm scale I'm working in. Anybody got any ideas for really small fibers? I guess I could save all the hair I pull out of my shower drain...lol. Oh, by the way Mel, the Terrainiac Facebook group was a stroke of genius. Let people help themselves so you can free up more of your time to build! Clever. ;-)

Hey Mel love the video keep up the good work.

Hello mate! Here's another possiblity for you I've been using for years and it's one of the most readily available, inexpensive and easy to work with... plain everyday hemp rope.

Cool idea

Cracking ideas! Thanks.

your a man who livings on the edge

Indeed! And then I tried your method with some bristle brushes and it looked better, was faster to do, and, and, looked better heh. I think at the tone I also was loathe to use a brush for it as my collection was minimal and I was trying everything to not buy anything. Homemade flock and clump foliage, etc. Cheap cheap cheap. Running outta stick now though, gonna have to put some cash out pretty soon.

Suuuper... thanks a lot!!

There's something plumbers use over here where I live. It looks like hairy tape and it basically is made of flax. Flax tape! Or whatever they call it. They use it when joining pipes to make it tighter. It's a lot like horsehair, real cheap as well.

Another great video. Was that a LINKA mould that I could see on your desk? I would love to see a video on that as I have a few of those moulds in my desk.

coconut fibers could work aswell or maybe some rope but that distressed brown one you brush it out with a toothbrush or a wire brush to distress it into fibers and boom grass XD

great ideas :)

I once made an attempt by brushing out felt into strands with a wire brush. It didn't turn out quite right, but it was a first attempt (and only the third piece of terrain I ever made), so it could work better on a second try. I mostly tried it because I had it on hand. I guess it's probably harder than what you show here so it might be moot... Hmm, well, it is an option in the absence of better materials at any rate heh

You can use a hairstacker from Fly tying.

Nice grass . Hello from down under mate .lol

Hey Mel, do you think it is possible to use the hogs hair brush as leaves for weeping willow tree leaves, after some painting?

Badgers. "They run faster than the hogs do". LOL!

What do you think about dehydrating freshly picked grass. Then grinding it up with a spice grinder to desired grain size, then run through a strainer. Then use this as free flock? Btw, what light green flock do you buy? I want to go with light green ... this medium green Woodland Scenic is pretty dark.

Can you do corn fields Thanks love your work

I'm watching this with a big bundle of unwound twine cut down & I'm thinking with a glue gun base they'd work well?

Oh, by the way...Do you think that Wizards of the Coast should do Birthright as a miniature war game?

The large brush fibers make great stick bundles or stick piles, for medieval scenes. Pile of sticks beside a forge sorta thing, or a wagon load of 'faggots' (stick bundles) as a peasants burden. I use my wife's hair for tall grass sometimes as she is a redhead and the contrast of the occasional red clump is interesting , but mostly I use the natural stuff or old paint brushes, and sometime my own hair as well.

Cheap as chips...matey ;)

I was wondering if dogs hair would be any good? I've got a long haired dachshund and he doesn't help with the rent, or pay anything towards the bills. Using his fur to make stuff for my toy soldiers would be a good way to help me out with something.

good idea making the hedges outs of a tall doormat. now I have to find one...

My wife tells me i need to grow up... I'm not going to stop wargaming...

Old shaving brush: jst3p.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/wpid-wp-1426809584768.jpeg

I have a slightly different approach...cat hair from white long haired.

wellll yes like em and stuf you get out side you get get out walk rond get out if like the place go on picnic with famly and day out get whay from NO PHONS AND BLANKS turn em off :::;;}}}

Nice video! But for the love of God- please stop saying whatchacallit!