I finally start on my first 'fur' mat

A while back I bought this throw from Dollarama with plans of making a mat for the Congo game. It is roughly 4' x 5' and unlike most teddy bear fur it is stitched along the sides, so should hold together well. It is not true teddy bear fur, so it is much shorter than what seems to be typically used for this type of project. However, unlike teddy bear fur this does not seem to shed. A step by step guide cn be found closer to the end of this posting. Please note I am in the middle of this project so no shots of the finished mat, but certainly some showing the progress made so far.



As the following photos show, it will make very short grass. On the plus side I do not have to trim the fur as much as those that use teddy bear fur have to, which is a good thing. 

So, I assembled my tools ready to tackle this project. While I have said that the grass is going to be very short, I still wanted to shave some paths in the grass, and make some clearings. With that in mind I started work.

Lets take a look at the tools and how good they worked...

Clippers did not work at all, nor did  scissors or razor blades.

However I have a really good pair of scissors for groming my dog, they worked!

These allowed me to trim out some areas, mostly the bigger open areas. What worked well though, was simply the application of paint, and glue using a medium (maybe 2") brush for non hobby type of painting tasks.

Products used for the paths and open areas:

 Dollar store paint.

 

Dollar store glue

Hobby store model railway ballast

Products used (so far) for the grass lands 

Two shades of green (hunter green/leaf green) dollar store paint,

 cheap synthetic brush

Dollar store brush and comb

The process was as follows:

1. Laid out the throw on a flat surface.
2. Tried to clamp it down, but was not successful due to size of mat vs size of the table
3. Trimmed a centre open area, then trimmed out some paths radiating from this centre area.
4. A combination of daubing and brush strokes were used to flatten down paths, and open areas. 
5. I used two different shades of brown paint while pressing down the fur.
6. As this paint was drying, or in some cases had partially dried, I then squeezed out some fabric glue (dries flexible) added some more brown paint, then sprinkled out some fine ballast to try and create a dirt like appearance, and to cover some of the matted down grass.
7. I used a lot of the glue from one bottle, for step 6, then watered down what was left and spritzed this watery glue over the paths and areas to give a protective covering.
8. I experimented with how to deploy the green, settled on daubing with the synthetic brush, then swift strokes with the brush to spread the paint, along with the brush and comb to spread out the paint.
9. I aimed to make the fur spike up, again through brush and comb work.
10. I will end up adding yellow and or desert tan highlights (not yet reached that stage) with a brush, or rattle can or some combination of both.

 The results so far:

Only one corner started so far with the green paint. Also please note I have not yet shaken any loose ballast from the mat so it looks rough in places. I hope to be able to dry brush the paths, and open areas.
 

Once I finished the basics, & the first dose of paint and glue had dried I had to peel the mat off the table as there was seepage. Below is the picture of my table after I peeled the mat off the table. No serious harm done, and I never use the table without some terrain mat on it.

To be continued...