"How high is your grass?" Topic

I have been colouring some 1/144 prone infantry having just cut the lawn after a 1 week holiday.

It made me think, in a fit of insanity I painted the bottom of the legs of my infantry black, probably not a lot of point as at most 1sq mm of black may not show up at 3ft. However be that as it may, painted they were. Then time to put the flock on representing grass (Noch railway flock for Hexon II). However I began to wounder if this was un-realistic.

PS. Should I have assumed long grass 18" then I could just flock a plain base, after all the guys are in camouflage.

OPPS posted on the wrong board first time.

After a week my lawn was 3" long. After a 2 or 3 weeks it would be closer to 1ft high as battlefields are rarely mown, however sheep would keep is closer cut.

It would be unlikely that a prone mans boots would be seen in 1ft grass, so did I fail as a simulator and paint incorrect detail?

It all comes down to how high the grass is. Most of land war-gamers fight on grass not plowed fields as the dominant botanic covering (snow is not a botanic covering please note). Purple Heather could be appropriate but I have never seen a battlefield with a predominantly heather covering (It would look nice in Purple and yellow flowers and certainly would cover boots but I digress). How long do you assume your grass is? My excuse is that the sheep have only recently left so the grass is short and my "boots" can be seen (my sorry excuse but I'm sticking to it).

So, how high do you assume your grass is and why.

I don't think about it because it doesn't matter to me.

Well, clearly I assume my grass is shorter when my 28mm armies take the field than when my 6mils deploy on the same mat.

Too many variables. Sheep as noted. Crops. Season. Trampling by the previous attack. If I started taking this seriously, I'd have to swap out my mats partway through some of the more intense battles. Certainly I'd need spring, summer and winter mats, and the regions and centuries would have to be taken into account. North America has fewer sheep. Post-WWII crops tend to be shorter.

I decided years ago that Geo-Hex green mats and Woodland Scenics Blended Turf (Green) would have to serve at a good enough approximation, and consistency was better than having bases and mat in conflict. So close-cropped or trampled (perhaps 3") in 28mm and perhaps over a foot in 6mm. Both within plausibility. At 2mm, I have to go to paint.

Lots of heather for the battle of Glen Shiel, 1719. But then I think a lot of the board would be at 45 degrees to the horizontal.

Great comments!

I agree with everything robert piepenbrink mentioned, plus: I use the appearance of grass to visually distinguish terrain types.

My standard game mats are all felt or polar fleece in a grass color, which of course has zero height. It is ruled to be whatever the standard terrain of the scenario must be.

I have fur fields in various colors to represent various kinds of tactically important tall grass. Sometimes this is used to define movement restrictions (e.g grassy marsh/bog/wetland), sometimes LOS-only impairment (dry ground with tall crops or grasses), sometimes "even ground" (because it's been cleared and ploughed) where the surrounding terrain is broken/rough, sometimes just a decoration to break up the monotony of green expanses.

I also have quite a few bare dirt fields (brown or tan corduroy) which can be mud in wet weather, or "completely open" in dry weather, or again just a decorative flourish to make the battlefield nicer to look at.

In most of my horse & musket games, the green cloth and farm fields are all just "good ground", and the fields provide visual cues where the fences go – which is important because fences in miniatures games tend to wander around a bit.

- Ix

I use flock on my bases which almost invariably covers their feet and ankles. seems a good compromise between bowling green and forest…

The boots of a prone figure would surely be visible from above?

Don't know how high my grass is but I do know how high I am on my grass. :D

Certainly I'd need spring, summer and winter mats,

Yep. Got 'em … plus more. It's the rare occasion when I don't have at least four terrain types on one battle layout. I play more on cultivated fields than grass, and more on thicket than fields. (I have no data on what most land wargamers play on.)

That variety is why I don't decorate bases. I have no problem having a variety of terrain bits, bit the number of minis would grow geometrically.

Now … how tall is my grass?

That tall.

etotheipi, LOL +1

Here is the best guide for model railroad scales and static flock and what that translates to real world measurements.

I worried that my cake decoration palms might represent a species that only lived in Hawaii, so I really shouldn't use them in Africa, the Caribbean, the Mediterranean, or the South Pacific.

I have thought about the fact that my rock outcroppings might be a suitable color or shape for Colorado and the Rocky Mountains, but not the Appalachians, Iceland or the mountains of Greece.

Never really thought about this one, though.

Grelber

I have long since achieved the dream of my teen years and do not have to mow, nor otherwise be concerned about, grass. I live in condominium complex, and we have professionals come in and do all of that.

Or said another way, I love landscaping and gardening. I could watch it all day.

I don't have someone mow my lawn (~1 acre) or other yardwork. I don't have a gym membership. Seems to work out.

Great table, Mister Tibbles.