"Fields - material" Topic

Morning all

Im looking at breaking up my plain green terrain board with a more realistic look of fields. Any suggestions on what materials to use on creating this 'patchwork' effect? Multiple cuts of felt cloth just dont seem to cut it
thanks

scall

Go to a carpet shop and ask for old samples in green or tan (or other "crop" colours).

You can get some good effects with corduroy type of material which can be used for ploughed fields – depending on scale.

Otherwise, use doormats cut up into squares for cornfields, etc.

Mike

It might help to know what scale you want. A 6mm field and a 28mm field will look differnt.

Somebody a little while back used towels of various colors which I thought looked really good.

thanks all

looking at 6mm, 15mm and 28mm :)

the ones ive seen done well, all seem to be very thin towling of some kind, very well worn. Hoped it could be bought like that

Yes. Just buy cheap facecloths and use them.

I've seen some great looking fields done (primarily for model railroad use) with fake fur from the crafts store, an electric hair trimmer, and some paint.

Doug

Here's are some ways to make some really, really nice looking fields.

1.) Buy a piece of "teddy bear fur" at your local fabric shop. Next, pour a big bag of Woodland Scenics flock into a bag. Rub your hands in the flock – they will get green dye on them. Rub your hands off with the "field" and the dye will transfer.

2.) Buy a piece of wide-band brown corduroy. Base on sheet plastic and cut to shape. Drybrush with pale brown. Glue flock to the "ridges" to look like fields. Use the flock with bits of color in it for a better look.

3.) Use a piece of felt cut to shape. Spray with watered down PVA and add pale brownish flock. I have a "mix" blend with lots of color variation.

4.) Or do what I usually do and buy them from Doug at BattlefieldTerrain.com

Cheers,

Mark "Extra Crispy" Severin
Owner, Scale Creep Miniatures
ScaleCreep.com
DeepFriedHappyMice.com

If you really want to make your fields on the cheap, go to a local craft store that sells one foot squares of felt. They're usually in several different shades of brown and can be cut in any shape you need. Run lines of white glue on them and then sprinkle your flock material on them. They make good 6/15mm freshly plowed feels and shouldn't cost any more than about $0.25 USD to make.

Al

Lots of great suggestions here and by using several of them together you get a great natural farmland look.

For dead hay/wheat fields in 20-25mm, I use welcome mats (Ikea has the kind with nothing "printed" on them). Sometimes you can drybrush them with different shades of yellow or brown to vary it up a little.

For plowed fields for 15-25mm I use berber carpet with the rows. Spray paint black and drybrush various shades of brown.

For grass fields teddy bear fur is where its at. You can cut it to any shape, spray paint it, dye it, flock it, cut paths into it with clippers…all sorts of stuff.

Felt is ok too for various fields.

Nothing looks better than a bunch of different fields surrounded by some hedges, fences, and tree lines. The best part is that it is all modular.

A long time ago,I saw a neat trick with felt,taking a wire brush with metal bristles and pulling the nap up on the felt so that it wasnt perfectly smooth. Has anybody tried that? I imagine that you could use glue/flock on it to change the texture.

If you're doing 6mm, you can just go with felt squares of various shades of green\tan\yellow, etc.. Place them down on the table to get a patchwork effect and hide the edges with fences\walls\lichen\trees.

Teddy Bear fur, for long grass, or wheat fields – just don't mention that in front of the kiddies, unless you want them to cry, and to have PETA come down on you.

I've also seen people use brown/tan corduroy fabric too, and/or corrugated cardboard to simulate the rows of a field.

For the latter, add some white glue onto the raised portions of the cardboard, and flock with green grass, or very small bits of clump foliage for a realistic look.

WHile not being "cheap" these are THE best fields available "I" have ever seen!

Busch HO 1216. Barley Fields (I paid 9.49 Euros for a box). They also do wheat and other fields.

What they are: 80 lengths of rows, 10 CM long each. (Made of green plastic and are meant to be bent into any attitude desired…like blowing in the wind.

These strips are glued down , side by side, to make as wide of a field as you'd like. Very impressive!

Best
Tom Dye
GFI

You can also buy plowed fields from railroad supply stores. They are cheap and quite nice.

Thanks,

John