Saturday 21 November 2020

28 mm Cornfields : ACW

As the title suggests I have been pondering cornfields, many battlefields during ACW have historical moments linked to cornfields and I am planning to play some Antietam scenarios where cornfields are key. Trouble is those commercially available are expensive, I have checked the internet and it isn’t very inspiring , nothing obviously easy and cheap and quick which is what we all want. So after searching a bit I have come up with a reasonable if not perfect solution.

These plastic hedge mats are available in a wide range of types, unfortunately none exactly like Pennsylvanian corn
The leaves are too big and they are very lush, one of the challenges is of course corn is very different at different times of the year, these are perhaps just before flowering  ? I pulled them off the backing which is easy then cut them all using a modelling knife just above the bottom leaves so there is an obvious stalk to allow then to be stuck into the base
Some simple bases with holes drilled about 20 per 11”
A bit of rough texture PVA glue and sand 
Then the slightly slow bit
These I left over night and then had a rethink as I do sometimes and decided to cut the top two leaves off and paint the stalk yellow, this gives a completely incorrect botanical structure for a corn plant but it’s a bit like a child’s drawing of what a corn plant looks like
Here is the medium field set up to show the effect which at the moment I would rate at 7 out of 10 pretty good given the cost and time spent
They look better strangely from different directions ?
And here we are with a unit marching through the field
All the accounts I have read say when moving through the corn fields the troops were invisible but you could see the flag so I have got the height right if nothing else
And here is all the sections I have made as one big field

So I am pretty happy, I did experiment with cutting the leaves to make them thinner but that was going to be a real fuss and very boring task. I have thought about spraying them to tone the lush colour down a bit ? They took in total about 3 hours or so, apart from glue, sand and paint which I consider utility items they cost less than £10 and I had enough for 8 strips so two medium or one large field.

So I might continue to look for better solutions, the reassuring thing being that I could very easily convert these to  shorter bean plant or some such for variety. At the moment though they will work for me as Cornfields.

I Have also been thinking about how to model hops ? Easy if you want to take a long time but very hard to do quick and easy !

Hope all are well 😀

30 comments:

  1. Looking great Matt! so realistic!
    BTW, blog list gadget is alive!

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  2. These look pretty good to me Matt. Crop fields are always challenging. Our group generally just sit the troops on top of the crops, which is not very aesthetically pleasing but is practical! Many years ago one of the guys found some cheap green plastic mats designed to sit at your front door to wipe your feet prior to entering. A quick dry brush of yellow along the pointed top of the green "leaves" and we had some very nice looking cornfields1

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    1. Thanks....as you will have seen I have multiple versions of the sit on top approach which works really well and is very functional. I like many use the door mat approach for wheat fields etc........

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  3. Your cornfields look convincing to me and an impression of a cornfield is all that is needed on the gaming table. Cutting the leaves down would have been a very boring task. Nice work!

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    1. The more I look the more I feel they need more work I might even take the scissors to a couple and see how that works ?

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  4. they work really well, could do with a bit of a spray as you said but can't wait to give them a try

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    1. They work ok and I shouldn’t be too pedantic after all some of my troops are carrying the wrong flags and have the wrong buttons 😀

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  5. Very effective and they certainly look right. Corn is very high, certainly well over head height when fully grown, so again the height looks good to me.

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    1. Thanks Steve Height is good but the Leaves are quite right, luckily I’m haven’t invested too much money or time so I haven’t lost anything. They may turn into lower Tabacco plants at some stage

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  6. As I am won't to say "they will do" good work there Matt. Our old artificial Christmas tree end bits were ideal with the minimum of faff, really wished I had salvaged more, a case of "get it when you see it not when you need it" if ever there was.

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    1. Yep they will do for now......but need more work

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  7. I think your cornfield has come out rather well. It gives the impression of corn and I have often found that when a terrain piece is surrounded by other pieces it all comes together. 😀
    Plus give yourself credit because cornfields are actually pretty hard to model compared to other fields. I had some success using Christmas pine stems for cornstalks in 15mm. There’s a post on my blog if you care to see. I wonder if they would also work for 28mm if you could find some in a wide enough diameter?

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    1. Thanks stew they ARE surprisingly hard and the more I have look the more it comes down to modelling each plant which is really tough and time consuming, and you can see when people have taken that approach they end up with a sparse effect which defeats the object

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  8. Those cornfields look very effective

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  9. Nice effect Matt and highly functional so that importantly troops can move amongst the terrain. There is an article in the current (111) issue of Wargames Soldiers and Strategy, which deals with using plastic aquarium plants for jungle and he primes, paints and dry brushes - a tedious job for sure with so many leaves, but his process is interesting. This months mag is Vietnam themed.

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    1. Thanks norm yes I saw the article, although I had ordered these before. We’ll see where I go with these as I have noted above I haven’t invested too much time or money so they may just turn into something else....tabacco plants if they continue to annoy me😀

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  10. Good looking corn fields nice improvisation! Well done!
    I made some using those twisty bag ties following a tutorial from an ACW gamers Blog;
    http://toysoldiersforever.blogspot.com/2018/10/my-54mm-cornfieldwith-pumpkins.html
    It’s also featured in an edition of the ACW Gamer Ezine;
    https://raven-banner-games.mybigcommerce.com/electronic-magazines/
    My efforts are here...
    https://toysoldiersforoldgits.blogspot.com/2019/01/home-made-cornfields.html
    Keep up the great work!

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    1. Thank you some really interesting links which I have checked out....the balance seems to be between making individual plants which is massively time consuming and something that works but doesn’t quite look right ?

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    2. Far from massively time consuming after the first couple I was churning them out and getting brownie points at the same time! 😃 The rest of your terrain looks really spot on as I’ve mentioned before and makes your games look great, anyway your table your rules...

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  11. That will most certainly do, as Phil says! Folk tend to over worry about terrain I feel. It's not like model railway terrain, but it's robust, game friendly and looks the part. My late father used to say, if anyone comments adversely, put it down to their bad manners.

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    1. Thanks David I am giving them time to settle down to see if I like them better in a few days 🤔

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  12. No matter the colouring or the size of leaves, to anyone playing an ACW game with this terrain, it' instantly recognisable.
    Job well done, I'd say !

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    1. Thanks you Sir........I will live with them for now or until I can find something better 🤔

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  13. Close enough is good enough, is my mantra and I think what you have done is close enough, if it bugs you that much, they will just have to become tobacco plants!
    Best Iain

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    1. We will give it time to see if they get converted !

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  14. Very impressive terrain building, Matt! Those look great and sturdy for gaming too.

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    1. Thanks I am less convinced but perhaps I need to see them in a proper game setting ?

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  15. They certainly look the part Matt...

    All the best. Aly

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    1. Thanks Aly....they look like some sort of crop if not quite the corn is was hoping for ?

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