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Other Stuff => Workbench => Topic started by: cram on October 19, 2013, 07:43:55 PM

Title: Coir mats for making crop fields?
Post by: cram on October 19, 2013, 07:43:55 PM: Been looking around for coir mats to make some crop fields. I thought it would be easy enough to find a suitable mat, but this is turning out not to be the case. The mats I have come across are to dark in colour. Can anybody please point me in the direction of a pale coir mat in the UK?

thanks Marc.
Title: Re: Coir mats for making crop fields?
Post by: Elk101 on October 19, 2013, 08:17:08 PM: Wilkinsons have them if there's one near you. Tesco also has them though they're about twice the price.
Title: Re: Coir mats for making crop fields?
Post by: Eric the Shed on October 19, 2013, 10:56:01 PM: B&q value line....

Can't believe you are struggling to find these...just hunt around for best price they do vary
Title: Re: Coir mats for making crop fields?
Post by: Eric the Shed on October 19, 2013, 10:56:49 PM: If too dark...lighten with drybrushing
Title: Re: Coir mats for making crop fields?
Post by: redeaston on October 20, 2013, 10:52:50 AM: I think I got mine from Argos.
Title: Re: Coir mats for making crop fields
Post by: Mitch K on October 20, 2013, 12:02:48 PM: Mine came from a local "sell everything" farmers' store. It's a darkish colour, rather like old straw, and also fairly short (15-20mm?). Even without drybrushing, it looks OK to me.
Title: Re: Coir mats for making crop fields?
Post by: muncehead on October 20, 2013, 01:20:01 PM: Sainsbury's in the homewares section.
Title: Re: Coir mats for making crop fields?
Post by: Sterling Moose on October 21, 2013, 12:07:43 AM: Any pics of them in use chaps?
Title: Re: Coir mats for making crop fields?
Post by: pacarat on October 21, 2013, 05:30:14 AM: I have bought some at Ikea, Home Depot, and at a "home improvement" type store in Kaiserslautern ...

I have seen two thicknesses. Roughly 1/2" and 1"...
Title: Re: Coir mats for making crop fields?
Post by: Mitch K on October 21, 2013, 07:56:07 AM: Quote from: Sterling Moose on October 21, 2013, 12:07:43 AM
Any pics of them in use chaps?

Will do. Be in a day or two, if that's OK?
Title: Re: Coir mats for making crop fields?
Post by: cram on October 21, 2013, 09:33:19 AM: What hight would you say is best suited for 28mm and which for 15mm?

Maybe the mats I've looked at aren't to dark and its just me! But dry brushing them lighter is an interesting option that I'd never considered.
Title: Re: Coir mats for making crop fields?
Post by: Malamute on October 21, 2013, 10:18:43 AM: Quote from: Sterling Moose on October 21, 2013, 12:07:43 AM
Any pics of them in use chaps?

(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/9/86_17_12_11_4_49_23_2.jpg)

Here's mine. I picked it up at a hardware hops for a fiver or there abouts. It was big enough to make the field shown in the photo and some extra sections for future use. I just drybrushed the tips of it to lift the colour slightly.
Title: Re: Coir mats for making crop fields?
Post by: Captain Blood on October 21, 2013, 10:26:35 AM: They always just look like doormats to me :(

It's one of the few wargaming terrain orthodoxies that I just don't get. The idea that doormats look like crops... Must be in the eye of the beholder I guess... :)

(Mind you, I do prefer doormat cereal fields to those cut-up bits of plastic mat... )
Title: Re: Coir mats for making crop fields?
Post by: Dolmot on October 21, 2013, 10:50:39 AM: Quote from: Captain Blood on October 21, 2013, 10:26:35 AM
It's one of the few wargaming terrain orthodoxies that I just don't get. The idea that doormats look like crops...

I think it's just a matter of trade-off where the look is "close enough" or "obviously recognisable" for gaming, while durability, price and building time are top notch. How do the slightly better looking alternatives compare in those aspects? Most gamers are happy enough to get reasonably good stuff to fill their tables quickly and move on to modelling other pieces or painting their minis. Everyone's hobby time is limited, after all.

However, I try to add a little bit of disguise to mine. ;)

(http://dolmot.net/mini/terrain/fieldsclose-800.jpg)
Title: Re: Coir mats for making crop fields?
Post by: redeaston on October 21, 2013, 02:59:08 PM: Here are some of mine. I agree with the above comment as well. I think they are a great trade off between effort and looking good. As you can see from the below I tend to base them up and cut paths etc through them.

(http://i744.photobucket.com/albums/xx88/redeaston/pics021.jpg)

(http://i744.photobucket.com/albums/xx88/redeaston/pics018.jpg)
Title: Re: Coir mats for making crop fields?
Post by: Eric the Shed on October 21, 2013, 03:28:49 PM: I have done a full tutorial on them here...

http://shedwars.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/till-we-wheat-again-fields-for-wargaming.html

cheers
Title: Re: Coir mats for making crop fields?
Post by: Elk101 on October 21, 2013, 08:52:27 PM: I rather like the old doormat fields!

Here's one in action as the remains of a US armoured infantry unit advance towards a German position in a farmhouse.
Title: Re: Coir mats for making crop fields?
Post by: FramFramson on October 21, 2013, 11:14:26 PM: Here are the ones I put together: http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=33326.0
Title: Re: Coir mats for making crop fields?
Post by: Captain Blood on October 21, 2013, 11:37:07 PM: Quote from: Dolmot on October 21, 2013, 10:50:39 AM
(http://dolmot.net/mini/terrain/fieldsclose-800.jpg)

Well that, I must admit, looks blinking good.

It's generally when they're plonked down in little unadorned squares of doormat on the tabletop that I think they look shit.

A surprising number of people do that, and expect them to pass for realistic cereal fields... ::)
Title: Re: Coir mats for making crop fields?
Post by: Mitch K on October 24, 2013, 09:51:35 PM: Here's mine. Sorry for the slight delay - BT unlimited broadband ain't as unlimited as you think!

http://mitchwargaming.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/fields-of-crops-quick-and-cheap.html (http://mitchwargaming.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/fields-of-crops-quick-and-cheap.html)

(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jmTbL9a2NHA/UmmFbZds3NI/AAAAAAAABNI/mnZ1KzUDRz0/s320/cerealfield3.jpg)

and

(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-BmR94pvui6Y/UmmFptjYpmI/AAAAAAAABNc/DyyiQbD6Hlc/s320/cerealfield5.jpg)