Homemade 28mm Corn Stalks

I was inspired by a blog post on John Bond's Wargaming Stuff blog on how to make your own cornfields for 28mm wargaming.  I have been hesitant to spend more on model railroad cornstalks (JTT 2" O scale).  They certainly look great but can get pricey for the amount of corn stalks I want to have on the table.  I have also not been very successful creating cornfields using other techniques, so I am giving John's technique a go.

I was surprised that John spotted a fake IKEA plant (FEJKA) that can be easily used as corn stalks.  I have an IKEA close by, so popped in there, bought the plant and have been trying out John's technique.  I tried to follow the process exactly, but ended up changing it up slightly.  I explain my process in the video below.  I bet there are more improvements other people will come up, but it is pretty easy and fast to go through this process.  Basing wise, I'm probably going to try out using rubber floor mat material.  I first saw it in action on Black Magic Craft YouTube channel: Link.

My video below on how to make these corn stalks.

I will post an update once I finish a cornfield terrain piece.

Link to John's blog post: John Bond's Wargaming Stuff

Rice Paddy Tutorial

This is my third version of rice paddies and the most traditional looking version.  This is a newly planted rice paddy.  I was not overly impressed by what I saw online from other wargamers, so I worked on trying to create something more realistic.  Probably still not as good as what model railroaders would make, but certainly better than what I've done in the past.  Mine are not perfect and I welcome better versions than mine and please share how you make it (TMP, Facebook or your blog).  This is not a fast technique, but maybe better paddies takes more time.

I have a fallow, newly planted and fully grown rice paddies.  These are the three I'll be using in an upcoming wargame.  They will be seen together in a future post on this blog.

Material:

• Pre-Mixed Grout (sandstone)
• Woodland Scenics Realistic Water
• 1/8" hardboard (from old poster frame back)
• 1/2" square dowels dowels
• Masking tape
• Sharp scissors
• Liquitex Acrylic Color: Burnt Umber
• Amsterdam: Permanent Green Light
• JTT Field Grass (Light Green), item 95086
• Optional: Some sort of green flock for the berm

Steps:

1. Assemble all the material. Make sure you have enough of the material to finish the project.
2. Cut the hardboard into a 10" x 10" square. I choose the square shape because I wanted to have multiple rice paddies beside one another.
3. Using the grout mix, build up the berms around the outside of the square hardboard. I went  1/2" high and flattened the top to give the impression that people can walk along the berm.

4. When the berms are dry (1-2 days), paint the berms and the inside of the rice paddy a dark brown. 
5. Cut the wood dowels to the width of the rice paddy (10").
6. Cut grooves in the dowels every 1 cm along two opposite sides of the dowel.  I made 19 notches on either side.  This is where the grass will fit into.
7. Bunch up a bit of grass together and place it into each groove, and cover with a piece of masking tape.  Try to pack the grass together as tight as you can and straight.

The gaps between dowels allows the Realistic Water dry better.

8. When all grooves have grass in them in the dowel, trim the bottom of the grass so when you place the dowel over the rice paddy on the berms, the grass touches the bottom of the rice paddy.
9. Repeat steps 5-8 until you have full coverage of rows.

10. Make sure the base is level before you pour the Realistic Water.
11. Pour the Realistic Water into the rice paddy.  I think something slightly over 1/8" deep will work.
12. Arrange the dowels over the rice paddy.  Make sure all the grass are embedded in the Realistic Water.

13. Let dry three days (not sure why it took me three days).  Make sure the rice paddy is fully dry before moving to the next step.
14. Cut the grass with scissors near the bottom of the dowel, not near the water.
15. The grass will not be perfect, and there may be missing rice or issues.  I fixed these by drilling a hole in the water and placing grass in the hole with the same process as 5-8 and then just poured a small amount of Realistic Water filling in and slightly around the hole.  Cut the grass like in step 14.
16. When fully dry and happy with the outcome, trim the grass closer to the water.  Height is completely up to you.
17. Paint the rice a Light Green.  The JTT Field Grass is a bit too dark.

18. The berm can be left without flock if you want, but I chose to glue small green flock on the berms.  I did not glue much flock on the inside of the berm.

I welcome any comments/suggestions.  If things are still a unclear, I can certainly expand further in my tutorial.

Fully Grown Rice Paddy Terrain Tutorial

For my 28mm Philippine-American War first scenario, I needed rice paddies.  I have made 15mm rice paddies in the past with limited success and the same approach was not going to work for 28mm scale.  I looked at what other people have made online and I am not impressed.  I thought I would take a stab at making something better.  The approach in this blog post is for a fully grown rice paddy.  I will also be making a recently planted and fallow field versions.

For material I recommend using what you have available and what works for you.  The material I used is what worked for me.  I'm sure you can find cheaper or better material.

Material:

• Pre-Mixed Grout (sandstone)
• Woodland Scenics Realistic Water
• Rust-oleum Gloss Spring Green spray paint
• 1/8" hardboard (from old poster frame back)
• Light brown faux fur
• Liquitex Acrylic Color: Burnt Umber
• Optional: Some sort of green flock for the berm

Steps:

1. Assemble all the material. Make sure you have enough of the material to finish the project.
2. Cut the hardboard into a 10" x 10" square. I choose the square shape because I wanted to have multiple rice paddies beside one another.
3. Using the grout mix, build up the berms around the outside of the square hardboard. I went  1/2" high and flattened the top to give the impression that people can walk along the berm.

4. When the berms are dry (1-2 days), paint the berms and the inside one or two inches of the rice paddy a dark brown. No need to paint the whole board as the middle part will be covered with the faux fur.
5. Cut the faux fur into a 8" x 8" square.

6. Trim the fur around the outside of the square and then use an electric hair trimmer with the 1/2" comb attachment to cut down the fur to about a 1/2" length. The hair trimmer was only about $20.

7. Lay out the fur square flat and spray the fur with the green spray paint until you no longer see any brown fur. I recommend a brighter gloss green color (i.e. Gloss Spring Green by Rust-oleum) for the spray paint. If you miss a bit of brown fur deeper in the fur, that is okay.  Most of what you see wargaming should be green.
8. When the fur square is dry, glue it into the middle of the hardboard. Make sure the outer edge of the fur square is flat to the hardboard.
9. With a small funnel, pour the Realistic Water into the gap between the fur and the berm all around the board. Let dry and repeat the application if not satisfied. It probably won't be perfect. No worries since I don't think it will be very visible when on the table.
10. The berm can be left without flock if you want, but I chose to glue small green flock on the berms.  I did not glue any flock on the inside of the berm.

That's it, the rice paddy is good to go.  There will be some warping, but I think when you lay it on a wargame mat it will sink into the mat slightly and the warping will not be noticed.

10mm Palm Trees Tutorial

Here's an option for creating your own 10mm palm trees.  I made these up for my WWI Middle East battles.  I'm sure I can use them for other scenarios needing palm trees.

Palm tree leaves.

 

Aquarium plant, toothpick, coffee stir stick/straw, cork sheet.



 Everything cut to size.



 All the pieces put together.

 

 Glued and painted up.

 

Trees in action (Battle of Gaza).

First Battle of Gaza Table

Progress has slowed down on my First Battle of Gaza, WWI scenario.  I have painted up all the miniatures for the game, and I am down to just testing the scenario/rules and finishing the terrain.  In the pictures below you will see the layout with no armies and with hidden movement bases.

I am not happy with the sand dunes at the bottom of the photo.  I'll have to come up with something different.  The palm trees, buildings, rail, hills, cactus hedges and wadi came out not too shabby.  The cactus hedges are on two sides of Gaza.  Note that any Turkish trenches are not visible.  These get placed once certain movement bases are made visible.

Elephant Grass Terrain for 10mm Wargaming

For my Ia Drang Vietnam scenario I read there was elephant grass in the battlefield, so I did my research how I was going to create the long grass.  It seems that the best way to represent long grass or wheat people are using is using faux fur.  I struggled to find faux fur at my nearby fabric/hobby stores.  I ended up finally finding it at a decent fabric store in town (Denver Fabrics).  The sales clerk got a kick out of me buying the fur during a snow storm that day, saying I could use it to keep warm leaving the store.

The fur itself is too long for my 10mm scale battle, so I had to figure out how to trim it.  Also I did not find much help online regarding painting, but figured spray paint would work.  So I gave it a try originally with Krylon Camouflage ultra-flat olive green but found it was too dark.

Below is what I came up with.  I might add some more shades to the current green, but it is start.

Piece of faux fur cut as a terrain feature.



Hair trimmer with a 3/8" attachment to trim the fur.



After trimming.




Krylon emerald green gloss spray paint used on fur.

The faux fur after spray paint.  I did spray a lot of paint trying to cover all beige colour.

It starts to get glossier the longer you spray the fur, which I think is okay because it is supposed to be grass.

 

Elephant grass with 10mm NVA figures.  I might try adding some lighter green spray paint patches to tone down the uniform green colour.