Im on a quest to turn my Epic battlefields into something you might see on a Flames of War table, ie lots of roads, bocage, fields, etc. My problem right now is the fields.

I saw an awesome picture in the book of Blitzkreig Commander, I think, which looked like craft fur or fashion fur used for a wheat field. My local fabric stores do have fur that looks like it, but not in natural colors.

Attempts to find door mats that would be suitable for cutting up are also failing, as I find these thick, woven mats that are awesome for your doorway but not good for cutting up into 8" or 12" squares.

What the heck? Have any of you done anything similar to this? Google searches of "Flames of war field" comes up with lots of pics, but having a bitch of a time getting items I can use myself. Im very sad

Spraypaint golden-yellow and comb to prevent clumping, mayhaps?

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Obtain cheap second hand teddy bears from a charity shop, skin the bears and use their hides? should be able to get plenty of browns, yellows and beiges etc

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AFK with real life, still checking PMs

You know whats funny? My wife had a similar idea. Hmmm...still, has to be someone else who has made a good field for 6mm?

I think JR Miniatures is considering making game mats, possibly 2' x 2'.

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"I don't believe in destiny or the guiding hand of fate." N. Peart

Our local gaming store has a big FoW scene, and the owner has used "teddy bear fur" for excellent boards. There has been much joking about it along the lines of teddy bear meat/hide processing plants. However, the fur is is quite long - I suspect that what works in 15mm would be much harder to use for 6mm. Perhaps they have different lengths?

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Let us playtest like the Greeks of old... You know the ones I mean

What about some sort of fluffy/tufty corduroy?

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Corduroy is an old stand-by for plowed fields and you should be able to find whatever wale size you want for scale. You might also be able to find a color/texture that worked as harvested fields.

I'm have my doubts you could find it useful for standing crops if that's what you're set on, though.

Trouble is what are you drawing your scale from? Fields for inf/AV/WE are all probably going to differ somewhat as the scale used for each isn't the same.

Also what range band are you aiming your fields to represent? 15cm engagement range or the 75cm battle cannon range....again as the range changes the scale changes.

What I'd do is probably just put some different flock colors onto a base board with raised lines of flock to represent hedges and treat the whole area as scrub (from the terrain table) that didn't block line of sight.

But not really what you're after if you want to bring the FoW style table to epic.

I plan on having a number of different sized fields, both in dimensions and in height. I want plowed fields with rows (like the courderoy mentioned above), I will have "fluffy" fields with not much more than moss-height crops, and lastly I'll have corn fields/wheat fields.

Teddy bears are now on my Kill-on-Sight list. I'll be hitting up a dollar store or two over the next week or so. I'll also get some of the courderoy.

Realistically, I guess the "fuzz" I mentioned above will be the wheat fields. Googling "wheat field" last night, alot of pics showed people walking through kneehigh grass. OK, I can do that. Ziterdes has a product called "Wild Grass Foliage" that looks like it will do nicely (Ive held the package in my hand in my FLGS). The taller fields, tall enough to be man-height and thus LOS-blocking for infantry, would be 6-8mm tall and I guess representing corn? Does corn grow in fall? (LOL city boyz, punks, all of us!). This is what the fur will be used for. Somehow I just think it will add so much to the battlefield...

Thanks for the replies, all. When I slay the proper bear, I will report.

OK, the publishers of Blitzkrieg Commander responded back. The product I saw, which I swore was a fur, is this:

http://www.gaugemaster.com/item_details ... =GM192&r=1

In my travels across the Bay Area looking for door mats, I finally found a nice 1/2" tall coir mat for a whopping $25 at the local Ace Hardware. I also found a neat mat at Home Depot for less than $3 that I will work into vineyards. I'll post pics of the raw materials soon. Finished product pics? Knowing me? Never

door mats ?

hmm

planning any polytunnels? (plasit drink straws) with a little operating hut a one end.

One thing to remember about fur (which I forgot to mention in my reply above), is that even at 15mm, the store owner still had to shave the pelt down to make it the right height - at least for the roads IIRC. He got some barber clippers and gave the field a "high and tight", so to speak. There was synthetic fibers EVERYWHERE. Something to consider.

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Let us playtest like the Greeks of old... You know the ones I mean

Just be careful what you do with the teddy bears:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61RJGQcG_sM