A Tuft Call

I have been using tufts on bases and for scenery lately, a lot!

The tutorial for paddies they other day mentioned Leadbear's Tuft's.  Well I also happen to use a lot of that brand tufts.

They are cheap, great quality and beacuse they are light the  postage is also very cheap.  With the USD to AUD or GPB to AUD conversion currently I think they would be even cheaper.

I was looking for something to help me simulate elephant grass, maybe waist high or a little higher on 15 mm figures.

What are your thoughts? These are still on the sheet they came on, not actually applied to scenery yet?






You can find Barry on FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/leadbearstufts/ or email: leadbear@internode.on.net

They look great!

Agree! Those look perfect. I think I might have some of those the same size. I mostly use them on scenery.

I definitely think they will work.

Ken, do you have product details on this? Were they an eBay purchase? Always looking for tufts for terrain and figure bases in 28mm.

I think they'll work. I personally ant my elephant grass to be taller than my figures, and super dense, which can be really hard to do with figures on bases. I'm going to try some artificial grass as a test.

This is what my elephant grass looks like for 28mm.

BravoSix wrote:Ken, do you have product details on this? Were they an eBay purchase? Always looking for tufts for terrain and figure bases in 28mm.

Todd,

There is a link to Barry's Facebook page were he has a catalogue and his email at the bottom of the original post.

BravoSix wrote:This is what my elephant grass looks like for 28mm.

Todd,

I have something similar coming from Aliexpress currently. I will post it up once it arrives.

Darby wrote:I think they'll work.  I personally ant my elephant grass to be taller than my figures, and super dense, which can be really hard to do with figures on bases.  I'm going to try some artificial grass as a test.

Darby,

I was hoping for head high but I can't find anything, except the fish tank stuff like Todd shows a photo of.

While these figures are single based my main 15 mm stuff is multi figure based and my intent is to make bases of this stuff the same size as the figure bases and as the bases move through the elephant grass just take a base of tufts out and replace with the figure base and put them back after the unit has traversed the elephant grass. If all the bases of tufts are then in like a large movement tray type device it should keep them all together without too much movement.

TailEndCharles wrote:There is a link to Barry's Facebook page were he has a catalogue and his email at the bottom of the original post.

Ah ok. Somehow I missed that first read.

I totally understand, there really is nothing out there that is as perfect as we'd like. Your solution looks great,a s does B6s!
I'm going to try to give this stuff a go:

This sample is 1.25" tall, which should work for 15mm. I'm not yet sure if I am going to just cut up the mat or if i will cut off the grass and glue it to some other base type with flock, etc. As it is, looks to regular to me, so some clipping will be in order.

That should work fine Darby.

I know there's lots of folks out there who don't like aquarium plants as they look too "plasticy" but I prefer them to a more "modeller" effect. Though, there's only certain shades of green I use for my jungle terrain. The other upside to plastic aquarium stuff is that it's abundant and usually very cheap considering how much you get for your buck.

In my opinion, to simulate elephant grass at 15mm, 20mm or 28mm, artificial grass or aquarium plants are the best: it is cheap and solid (replaceable because on a wargame terrain...) and easy to paint with spray (two shades of light green are enough to make the difference with darker jungle vegetation). Personally I gave up to find a good solution. In 28mm I tested leek root, tree moss, doormat,...but still not satisfied. For the moment, if I had to do a jungle terrain, I would use a Daisy Cutter first...

Richard MARQUIS wrote:if I had to do a jungle terrain, I would use a Daisy Cutter first...

Darby wrote:I'm going to try to give this stuff a go:

Darby,

Is that like an astro-turf, artifical grass ??

Basically yes. This particular set is designed for indoor pet use, so has a very thick backing and drainage channels. I'd prefer some with a cloth back but can't find any that is inexpensive (and this one was free!).

Darby wrote:(and this one was free!)

Free is always good buddy!

Ken, I made contact with Leadbear via email today on the tufts in your pics and postage of said tufts to Canada.

Looking forward to hearing what he has to say.

The artificial grass that Darby uses looks good. But has anybody figured out how to keep the figures from standing on top of the grass, rather than in it?

Of course, it does not help that I use 20mm figures that don't weigh much. As they are singly mounted I cannot use TEC's method of bases of grass the same size as my figure bases. Too many bases of grass.

One of the Regimental Fire and Fury scenario books deals with this problem by just having a number of bases of whatever vegetation it is (corn in their case). They just get shuffled around as figures move through them. Not perfect, but not bad. There will be empty areas of ground and the boundaries may not be too fixed.

Tom

Garryowen wrote:I cannot use TEC's method of bases of grass the same size as my figure bases. Too many bases of grass.

Tom,

I have seen a similar "method" to mine used successfully in larger scales and with skirmish figures.  Just break the area in question up into sub areas and shuffle them back and forth, not dissimilar to the F&F idea.  By making a barrier of some description to hold them all together helps but is not a requirement.  I have seen some very random sized treed areas broken up this way and it worked very nicely.

BravoSix wrote:Ken, I made contact with Leadbear via email today on the tufts in your pics and postage of said tufts to Canada.

Looking forward to hearing what he has to say.

Todd,

Cool. Barry is a good guy, supports local shops and conventions and makes great stuff. As with all of us his life has changed a bit during these current times. He used to run his business virtually full time while looking after his family as a stay at home dad. Now days I believe he has had to go back into the work force so that slows him down a little. I was messaging him only yesterday as he was chasing the link to the paddy tutorial that used his tufts. He is very open to making orders to what you need as well, not necessarily his standard pack sizes.

TailEndCharles wrote:...while looking after his family as a stay at home dad

I like him already! Having done that myself for my daughter's first 3 years.

TailEndCharles wrote:

Garryowen wrote:I cannot use TEC's method of bases of grass the same size as my figure bases. Too many bases of grass.

Tom,

I have seen a similar "method" to mine used successfully in larger scales and with skirmish figures.  Just break the area in question up into sub areas and shuffle them back and forth, not dissimilar to the F&F idea.  By making a barrier of some description to hold them all together helps but is not a requirement.  I have seen some very random sized treed areas broken up this way and it worked very nicely.

Good idea, TEC. I will give it a try. Thanks.

Tom

Ken, I did hear back from Barry, but sadly the hikes in AUS postal rates make buying from him not cost effective. Nice guy though.