Sea mats?

[Dolmot]

Hello

With all this talk about gaming mats going on, I wanted to return a related topic. It's not entirely new but maybe there's some new information to be found.

Briefly put, where to find plausible, affordable sea mats for naval games? I am aware of Terrain Mat products, which are excellent but unfortunately pricey and allegedly in a long order queue. Furthermore, I have a boatload (ha!) of things to build/paint so I really wouldn't like to start another 3m² home-made terrain project with all the mess it involves.

So, what would you recommend? Specifications:

• At least 4'x6' (1.2x1.8m) so the Dreadfleet mat is out.
• Wrinkle-resistant. My current plain cloth looks awful after storing or carrying folded.
• Preferably foldable, but rolling is also acceptable.
• Maybe some nice wave patterns for approximately 1:300-1:1200 scale.
• Absolutely no grid, squares, hexes or whatever.
• Reasonable price, including shipping to a close proximity of the north pole.

...or should I simply pay £85.86 for a Terrain Mat (and miss the summer season waiting)? Or ask the friendly folks at the local fabric shop for a good base material and try my luck with a quick air brush job? Any ideas?

[Cherno]

Here's my take on the subject.

I won't buy "official" gaming mats after buying two mats from Hotz and finding out they were not any better or worse than the fabric mats available in the fabric store.

So for my pirate project I'll just go to the local department store tomorrow and search the fabric department, they normally have a large selection of felt mats etc. in many different colors. I'll probably just buy a light blue one in a suitable material. I won't spray-paint it or anything since I have no airbrush and feel that a flat blue surface should look good enough, I'll be using Pirates of the Spanish Main ships anyway so why bother

I might also buy some green and yellow felt and cut it into island shapes, see here:

[Dolmot]

Well, maybe...but nowadays I have a preference for visually pleasing games, something like this... 



(Excluding the token & dice clutter, which is still present here. Bah.)

Plain ocean turquoise might do, if the price of waves is £80+shipping. My current cloth would be otherwise good enough for casual games, but it forms heavy folds which are awfully difficult to iron out, and they re-appear in the next transportation anyway. Surely there are better materials out there for gaming? Also, in public demo games it wouldn't hurt to go one step further with the overall look...