More Elephant Grass - Not Tufts

Following on from my topic on using tufts for Elephant grass,  as suggested by B6 and others I got some of the fish tank plastic grass.

For USD$3.84 including postage, I got two pads of 81 (9x9) clumps of plastic grass. That’s just a tad over 2c per clump.

Ordered July 10th direct from China, arrived August 18th.

If I can just get the “fronds” to stand up straight and give them a brown/tan spray I think I will have a workable solution.

I have a few of those mats Ken, and come to think of it, it was probably some of the first plastic plant mats I ever owned from way back.

BravoSix wrote:I have a few of those mats Ken, and come to think of it, it was probably some of the first plastic plant mats I ever owned from way back.

Todd,

Did you use them as they come off the frames like the third photo? Did you attempt to stand them more upright?

Do you have any pics of them in use?

Yes, I always took pieces off the frames and just mingled them into my terrain piece. I never used them as an exclusive Elephant Grass piece. As for straightening, I use to used a hair dryer to straighten out the large fronds of my palm trees. This worked a charm and they flattened out quite nicely. I'd imagine you could do something similar to get the grass to stand upright. Worth a shot.

I don't beleive I have any pics. Those were used mainly on the old jungle pieces I sold off years back when I "thought I was getting out of the hobby".

Thanks Todd, I will give that ago.

Maybe dip the fronds in boiling water? Trick will be to keep the bottom from warping so they still sit flat.

That's not a bad idea, but I think with the hair dryer method you have more control.

I put them on bases with other stuff so that they were representative of jungle.

Another way of doing elephant grass is astro turf which comes in all heights. I have some tall sheets as well as these short sheets. You can get these for free from shops as samples.

Thanks Paul,

I think Darby in another thread had astro turf as well so I will have to see what I can find locally here in Oz.

That turf does look great in the picture.

@Paul: do you game in 15mm as well? Are those the Eureka 15mm French Indochina guys?

Darby wrote:Maybe dip the fronds in boiling water?  Trick will be to keep the bottom from warping so they still sit flat.

This worked, haven't had a chance to try the hair dryer yet as the wife has it hidden!

BravoSix wrote:@Paul: do you game in 15mm as well? Are those the Eureka 15mm French Indochina guys?

They are Empress Miniatures 28mm FIC figures.

Ah ok. Not sure why, but those pics make them look like 15's.

BravoSix wrote:Ah ok. Not sure why, but those pics make them look like 15's.

He took that picture from a Slick leaving the LZ.  So everything on the ground will naturally look smaller while in flight.