Briar Patch and Thickets

I'm always looking for some new variation of vegetation to add to a scene, IMO the more you have, the less your eyes will see a repeating pattern.

On a recent trip to the hobby shop, I came across a product from Woodland Scenics called Briar Patch, which is supposed to resemble thick and or thorny bushes.  I thought this would be a nice addition to the bog scene, so I grabbed a pack of it.  I think it was about $9 each.

After getting it home and inspecting it, it looked like it was made from chunks of Super Trees with ground foam glued to it.  Simple enough.  It was tightly packed and was rather brittle.  While trying to break/cut off a section, it wanted to crumble quite a bit.  My first thought was that I could replicate this fairly easily by using a course furnace filter for much cheaper?

After digging through my scenery supplies I found a package of  Natural Aire filter that I picked up a while back for another project.  This should work nicely?

I cut off a small section to start with.  There's a backing screen that helps hold the filter together, this I removed by simply peeling it off.

I cut the strip into a small block and stretched out thin then squashed it into a bush like shape and sprayed it with Krylon Dark Camo Brown paint (which was close at hand) so it was brown and not green.

While the paint was still wet, I applied a good coating of some fine burnt green or late summer ground foam to cover the filter fibers and shook off the excess.  Next I sprayed it with a good coat of cheap hair spray and sprinkled on a light amount of some brighter green ground foam for a variance of colors (I do not like a monotone look for vegetation) and shot it again with the hair spray to lock it all in place.

Once dry, I trimmed it up and placed it in the scene up against the base of the tree line.  I'll add some smaller bits and pieces of foam to help add layers to the scene.