"Maize (corn) fields" Topic

Please bear with me here, I'm trying to add pictures for the first time and may very well mess it up. I saw the discussion on the 1:144 scale about this same topic the other day, and wanted to show what I did. I went to Hobby Lobby and in their plastic floral section I found plastic "astible" or something like that. By cutting the small branches off the main trunks and gluing them in holes drilled into a base, I tried to duplicate the crowded stalks. Made 9 such sections that fit into a base with raised edges. Can remove a single section and put figures in as they traverse the field. I think the branches are realistic enough to pass for corn stalks, and they're about the right height for 25-28 mm figures. Now for the pictures:
First is a single section showing the "plants"

Just buy them from BTC, they're not cheap but I had some for
??15 ?? 20 years, very robust, I just put my 6 fig move stands on them during games.
I have been buying 1 bag ?? 6 or 8 stands per bag at the Cons, each stand is 9 corn stalks. Their late season corn.
July to ?? early October.

Very nice, Tom. Nice to see your name in print. Stay healthy, my friend. Hal

They look great !!

I don't know why only 1 picture printed. Should be 2 more. Will try again.

Picture #2: figure eye level view of entire cornfield

Picture #3: a scout party emerges

Trying again to get picture #3 bigger. Thanks for putting up with my mistakes as I learn what I'm doing.

Very nice.Quite universal

I like them! Could be tobacco fields and some others as well.

That looks amaizing Tom!

Nice job, and a sharp-looking scenic for the tabletop.

The finished plants look great, and it's quite effective how you can remove a section to place figures.

The green looks somewhat shiny, is that how you like it? If not, try a matte varnish spray.

Thanks all, for the comments. Ceru, That is the finish the artificial plant comes with, I didn't spray it at all. I don't mind the way it looks. The sections are pretty much interchangeable, so you can remove and replace any of them. You can take one out of the middle to represent troops hiding out of sight in the depths. Useful.

great

nice looking corn fields. Ill definitely go pick up some of this and give it a try.

Yup at your scale they look great. What are they 50mm tall? I guess so for 28mm. Corn varying fully grown from 4ft to 13ft which would be close on 60mm tall.

One question remains regardless of scale. How much of a field is a sensible coverage. I am leaning on sparse, less than 30% of the field being covered in maize models, they are there to encode the field, telling players what type of terrain it is. Certainly for me I am not interested in a diorama type look.

It may be a deciding factor based on how big a field you are representing. In the modern period a 600m by 300m field is in the UK the bottom end of big field. Many fields are far bigger. Representing even a 600mm by 300mm (600m by 300m real scale) field would take about 720 corn storks for a 1/144 size. I guess slightly fewer for your model the spacing can maybe be a bit more open and still keep the looks.. How many are you going to make.

What is your take on how to represent the terrain in a wargame environment.

UshCha: Thanks for the nice words. You're spot on, their height is 1 3/4" (almost 50mm). Coverage: I wanted to represent a family corn plot for French and Indian War era, not a large farm, so I kept the size manageable: corn sections are 1 7/8" roughly by 2 3/4" roughly at the bases. So the sections take up a total area of 8+" x just under 6". The base is 10 1/2" x 7 1/2" to allow some space for "finishing" (shrubs, rocks, fence posts, etc). I used 24 stalks per section, so a total of 216, plus a few on the ground looking toppled. Definitely not practical for representing a large area, but my goal was something for skirmish, small unit action. All my stuff is 25/28 mm, and I get my ideas from pictures Der Alte Fritz (Jim Purkey) posts, and from the Series of books by C.S. Grant.

Borderguy 190: if you want them, I have some leftover stalks. You're welcome to them. just give me an address to send them to.

They look great.