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 😀