"Teddy Bear fur ground cloth" Topic

So after seeing some more of these at the recent convention, I can't wait to get one. Or two.

Does anyone use them here? If so, where did you get yours? They seem rare at the local fabric stores.

Also, do people use different knaps for 15mm vs 25mm figures?

I also had an idea that you might be able to use them in large pieces on another ground cloth as well. I have used them for fields before, but perhaps larger pieces might work better.

Thoughts? :-)

I use one and had one at my Cold Wars game.

I think they are great for transportability and they do look good as well. Mixed with other forms of terrain they can actually look very professional. By themselves they can look good enough.

I got mine from fabric.com It came as a 5 foot wide piece and I got about 8 feet across so it was good for covering half of the table for my cold wars game. It is not quite as wide as I'd like it to be but it is functional even on my table at home as it gives some space around the edge for dice rolling and so forth.

I use mine almost exclusively for 28mm figures. I have left some of the grass long to work as fields. This is nice for the 28s but would probably look out of place for 15s. I suppose I could cut it to a length that would work for both but I have other terrain mats for 15s.

Which one did you order, Pictors? The camel soft?

You can usually get the cheap fun fur at fabric stores. Can't vouch for the color selection. Real teddy bear fur is a specialty item that usually has to be ordered from specialty stores.

I would imagine that the bears don't appreciate anyone taking their fur and using it for a game mat.

I have seen internet photos of piles of skinned teddy bears. Children are crying. Not a pretty scene. Stuffed animal activists are getting ready to protest. These folks are the same ones who protested all the dead nagas and acryllics.

Mike

The link below is to C&R products, your source of all things Teddy Bear…this is the flavor of fur I've bought. Good luck!

link

All kidding aside, I'm in the market and shopping for the fur too. However I use mostly 15mm figures so I need to find fur with a shorter nap. The 7/8" is too long for the smaller sized figures. I'd like to find some 3/8" or at most 1/2" fur. I've got the green and yellow dyes ready to go. I'm hoping that I make the discovery at Michael's or Jo-Anne Fabric, as I have 40% off koopins too.

Mike

I don't remember what it was called but it looks like this one more or less:

link

Whoa. That is some fur. " 1.5" long lustrous pile". 15mm figures will disappear into that.

Mike

link

My point being, they do make it in other lengths of knap.

I just ordered two yards of the shorter knap for my 15mm games. I'll see how that goes with my 20mm WWII stuff or if I want to go with the longer knap.

Perhaps it is just me, but people should listen to db when he has gaming suggestions. His games are awesome looking.

So how do you color it green, or green-ish?

I have not seen any tutorials yet, but my plan is to do it in a plastic tub and soak the fur. Goggles. Rubber gloves. Long stirring stick. etc. Then hang it up outside to dry, then brush the fur loose again.

One of our guys (Chris) used fabric spray paint, which looks good overall on the fur used in the group's Renaissance games (28mm figures). However it has the reverse look of natural grass: green on top and brown underneath. With the dying method I want to have the entire fiber green from top to bottom. Same for the yellow for ripened wheat fields. If the grass needs areas with dry tops, then maybe a brownish spray can be used in areas for variety.

It's my theory and I'm sticking to it. If I'm not covered in green, I'll try to post pictures of my results.

Has anyone else tried dying the fur?

Mike

db says get the camo spray from Home Depot and spray it. It comes out flat. His ground cloth looked great at CW this past weekend.

Here is a tutorial that amy answer some questions: link

<<Stuffed animal activists….. >>

Now there's an interesting concept……..

DBF, thanks for the link to the tutorial. Interesting techniques to do the shaving and cutting to vary the height of the fur as well as give it variety and different looking textures.

Mike

I have used the camo paint from Home Depot which comes in dark green, dark brown and tan (sold in stores) and light green (available online). I've also used Liquidtex and Montana Gold spraypaint available from Michaels and Jerry's Artarama for highlights, etc.

db

Looked at some tonight, but all they had were browns, no greens. I'll look on line.

That tutorial was mighty impressive, but for what I have in mind I need more flexibility than fixed terrain cuts. Still, that was awesome.

For those that missed db's games at CW, they seem well covered in many of the photos posted on TMP. Take a look. :-)

I got mine green by mixing acrylic paint with water in a spray bottle and spraying it. It took awhile but that was because I did it in winter and it was cold where it was drying. With summer coming up it wouldn't take anywhere near as long.

I did trim most of it down and just left the longer pieces as fields. That helped with it being the yellowy colour as it looks just like standing wheat.

db:

How many cans of spray paint did you use, and for what size cloth? I just bought a 6ft long one and was wondering about how many cans of spray that will take?

At the link Pictors posted they have one in olive green shag. Seems a lot easier than dyeing a brown or tan one…

Dyeing seems like a messy way to achieve uncertain results, as the fibers may be reistant to the dye.

I had another thought of using large swatches of the tebby bear fur put over a flat gound cloth too. Perhaps more flexibility for changing fields, roads and streams. At least with the deeper knap of fun fur it seems that terrain piece roads and streams might have problems laying flat in the fur, unless the fur is trimmed away – which means you have the same terrain (more or less) for your games.

Historygamer,

The amount of paint depends on the color density you want and the amount of fields you want to retain in the original base color. Because my fur was based on actual Borodino terrain I have fewer field sections that I would if I did a generic fur. More importantly the density of color plays a large role…I think I overdid mine…a lighter application of green will do two things, allow the fur to retain flexility rather that stiffening and give you more of a visual depth of field. If you looked at Nigel's fur you'd have noticed he uses a lighter touch on his green than I did and he has more fields integrated into his lanscape. Bottom line, for my table I probably went through 5-6 cans of the dark green.

db

Supercilius I am sure there quite a few people who have wanted "stuffed animal activists".

I used this tutorial here: link

this is how mine turned out: link

I used an air brush to colour the mat. an airbrush evenly distributes the paint sin a relatively light coat, so the fur is still quite moveable. it' did not clump.

on my mat, as in the tutorial, the long grass is left the base colour(which is a shade or 2 darker then the camel shown above) and only lightly highlighted with a "camel" colour by Americana Craft paints(the whole mat was done with colours from the range).

having made a great deal of terrain over the years, I'd have to agree with Pictors on this one: they are very easy to transport, and very difficult to accidentally damage. for the same amount of work I'd put into a modular board system, this mat looks far more professional and actually cost less, with about the same or maybe slightly less work.

the one i just finished made was a custom job for a game I'm hosting at a local convention next weekend. it was also my test bed. I'm going to be grabbing a 12 foot length to do, and make separate roads and such, to make it more modular.

Check down towards the middle of the page "Faux Fur Tutorial";

link

Mine is a golden colour and I just use it for fields of wheat/corn.

db, et al:

You can obtain the entire range of flat camo spray (bu Rust-oleum) at Wal Mart, inclduing the deep and light green. Just bought some today. :-)

I have a load of Teddy Bear Fur terrain. Very cheap £6.00 GBP per meter and available from all good cloth shops. My technique is to soak in a tub mixed with water based green paint and then use a broom to scruff up..

The ones in this convention game were cut out to size "as is" while the table was being set up. It looks like there are two shades of fur used.

link

link