"Scratchbuilding Hotz style Fields?" Topic

Since cancer has a better reputation than Hotz does, I want to try taking a stab at making them myself. A quick look confirms they are simply felt with flock glued on then sealed.

Any good tutorials that get it 100% accurate? What felt, what glue, what flock? What else? Any tricks to getting perfectly straight lines? Build a rig? Share pics if you feel strongly about your method.

I like the Terrain Tutor's fields but those are not a match. Nice, but not a match. And Pinterest sucks btw, great for inspiration, but terrible for anything other than a photo.

Le beau ideal (I'm looking for something for 10-15mm with very low profiles):

Better (more greens than yellows):

I make my fields with felt, fabric, plastic. Just paint and white glue. But I don't try to match, I like variety.

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If you want straight lines use brown or beige corduroy fabric.
Glue doesn't work all that well on felt because its non-absorbent.
Run the beads of white glue down the low channels of the corduroy, apply flock, seal when dry.
The glue will soak into the fabric so either put everything on wax paper until dry or base the fields with mdf if you want them more durable.

Another way to go is using Home Depot cheap outdoor carpeting called "Elevations" which is ribbed, in "Berber" carpet style. I use the brown color known as "Stone Beige". I've had great success with it. It costs .40 cents/sq'. I started out painting the tops of the ribbing with green craft paint, but then moved on to using artists magic markers in a variety of shades of green. Incredibly fast and easy to prepare and IMHO they look pretty good.

Here's a pic of the raw material:

Here's a few pics of my fields on the table. The fields made from "Elevations" are mixed in with fields using other materials, but you should be able to get the picture:

Here's a LINK to the item on the Home Depot site:

link

Wow – those look pretty good!

Tell me more about the artists magic markers. Then you just draw over the high points with these? Do you have to pre treat it in any way?

I actually have a fair amount of brown corduroy for this kind of thing. The "ribs" have more space in between these but should also work.

Thanks, Flashman14, glad you like them!

There's not too much more to tell. At least here in Southern California you can find single magic markers for sale at hobby shops and also Michaels.

Sharpie used to sell a great Olive Green color, but sadly it's become much harder to find. Maybe only still available in a big collection, if that. But there are a few other companies, including PRISMCOLOR – which has a Dark Olive Green color:

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Prismcolor markers all come with dual tips, one fine-point, the other broad tip, drawing from same ink source, so they always march perfectly.

For the fields above I used a mix of 3 or 4 different shades of olive, light, and medium greens. Re: the process, YES, just draw over the "high points" with the marker, ands that's it, no pre or post treatment necessary. A pretty fast and easy process.