Elephant Grass-Thoughts

I've never made elephant grass that I've been completely happy with, having tried a few different methods over the years. I've tried or seen "fields" of fur, carpet, and outdoor patio carpet/fake grass in varying heights, textures, and colors, used to varying effect. Some being quite attractive or more functional, but none have ever really met my both functions completely.

I've also seen attempts intending to allow individually mounted figs interact with the grass in a more reallistic manner, utilizing rows or clumps of grass with spacing in between to accomodate figures, and I've seen things that fall inbetween and outside of all of these methods. From above this "clumps with space" method can look a little off, though at table level, from the figure's eye height, it usually preents a fairly realistic effect.

Some of the most realistic grass has been really nicely painted fur, wih the figs sort of pushed into the fur, as they move through the grass. But, the figs sort of float up on the grass, usually such that they are about half exposed above the grass, which is often modelled as actually being taller than the figs.

In recent years, I've seen some really attractive, realistically colored outdoor grass carpet, that also has a finer texture than some of the stiff, nearly flourescent green stuff that I remember from decades past. I've pretty much settled on some of this newer outdoor stuff, as I can save the time and tedium of having to paint whatever grass I use.

Originally, I figured that I would use a method combining strips and clumps of grass with some spacing in between that would permit figures moving "through" the grass. This method would work well with the sighting and aiming conventions in my rules. But the thought occurred to me to just a make a bunch of little clumps of grass, mounted on bases about the same size or just slightly larger than my that of my figs, where I would replace the clump of grass with the fig, as they move through the grass. Each movement would be completed by removing the next clump, where the fig moves to, and placing it in the opening left by the moved figure.

This method would allow dense fields of grass, potentially taller than the figs and completely surrounding and obscuring the figure from view from any fig more than 1-2 base lengths away. I'm thinking maybe achiving a highly realistic appearence from above and at table level, and allow the figs to move through, rather than above the grass.

I'm also thinking that it might make setup a little more tedious, but that moving the figs, especially once they've entered the grass, really wouldn't be that bad.

Any thoughts? Curious how goofy this might sound, or if there is some other obvious problem I might not be seeing.

Any comments or thoughts are appreciated.

Thanks,
irishserb

I don't think it's goofy at all. I'm actually working on the same thing. I've got a 12"x12" sample of the really nice fake grass (5 different colors of strands, looks very realistic) matt that I am cutting grass off of to make individual bases. This is mainly because I don't like how the matt is so thick and makes the grass look odd when on the table, but also so I can have unlimited field shapes that can be made as well as making it seem more realistic with figures within (as you are working on above). A side effect of individually basing the grass is you actually end up with a larger total area because the blades spread out just a little bit.
Party on, show us how it's going. (I've only got 4 little bases done so far, but I may be inspired to continue now!)

Oh cool, please share some pics when you can.

Yeah , I've never been able to figure out how to do this either and would be interested to see what you guys come up with.

My thought is.... buy some tray bases with 3 or 4 pre cut holes for your preferred individual base size. But these trays should be be geometric (square or hex). Buy some bases the same size as your tray but without holes and put grass all over these and.on your bases.

As you move your figures through the field of grass swap the bases around.

Surrounded by grass they should be invisible.

Cheers

John

I saw this on Etsy and I'm considering giving it a try to see how it looks.



From this seller: https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/1362690868/27mm-tall-22-new-tufts-of-late-summer?click_key=11685ed1f6a6b3446057f524ff4457ca056f95cd%3A1362690868&click_sum=d17932a5&ref=user_profile&sts=1

todd that looks excellent

It actually does. Imagine it on figure bases.

I think I'm going to order a pack and see how it looks up close. My only worry is that it may be TOO tall for 15mm. I can always use it for something in 28mm I suppose.

BravoSix wrote:I think I'm going to order a pack and see how it looks up close. My only worry is that it may be TOO tall for 15mm. I can always use it for something in 28mm I suppose.

posted on couple groups mate seems people have used them for various scales 20mm and 28mm etc

Perfect. Thanks Thomas!

That would be excellent, could even trim it down a little if needed 9much easier than making it taller!)

Yes, this IS true.