Haberdash!!

Not sure exactly how I started this particular project, saw a post on the dreaded FB about wargaming mats and a mention of a "plush" fabric. Now I have a grass type mat which is 6x4 and serves me well, however I suspect once I start adding hills underneath it, it won't cover the full 6x4 neatly so I may need an option that is a bit larger to cope with this. It also gives me the opportunity to add more variety to the mat as the one I have is rather monotone.

Well having seen that the company were selling mats for well over £100 I though I'd have a week look at fabric options that may suit, and see if they would turn out cheaper. I don't do a whole lot of wargaming so saving the cash for terrain or miniatures tends to be the order of the day!

I browsed through three different fabric sites and handily enough they all offer samples, some entirely free. I selected a number of potential candidate fabrics from each site and then waited impatiently for them to arrive.

First into the letter box was from Rooftop Fabrics and they charge postage I believe for any samples, I think it was £1.93. I got two samples from them, olive plush and kiwi plush. They have a rather pleasant 3mm or so pile so straight off the bat seem to be the most likely candidates, but we shall see how they cope with some paint, to add the glorious variety I seek.

The next in were five samples from Yorkshire Fabric Shop and they were entirely free (up to six free samples). There are some interesting options here but none have much of a pile to them. Not the end of the world by any stretch as it will be more how they cope with paint that should matter. Some of these samples have lovely texture patterns already so with some colour variation they could prove rather spiffing indeed!

The final two samples were from My Fabrics and they had a £3 charge, I think that would cover more than the two samples I selected though.

Onto the paint test - I used two different greens, a yellow ochre and on some panels a burnt umber, just slapped on and moved around with a brush. This largely seems to have worked well, although for the two fabrics with a much longer pile it didn't get in to the base. Apparently using a comb helps, which I did dabble with, but clearly I need more practise!

First up are the two 3mm pile plush fabric from rooftop fabrics. Olive on the left and kiwi on the right although there is probably more difference due to the paint than the original colour.

And at an angle to try show the pile and texture a little.

Next four of the offerings from Yorkshire Fabrics, yes I know there was five originally but the fifth was flat and after paint just looked like painted cloth. Nothing special so I decided to cut it out of the test at this point.

Two on left are same pattern different colours; two on the right are same pattern (different colours)

And again at an angle, and annoying laid out differently. The top two are the ones from the left; the bottom two are the ones from the right.

Finally the two longer pile samples from My Fabrics.

Angled shot.

Right well what has this achieved then? I've managed to rule out most of them for a variety of reasons. The two plushes from rooftop fabrics are by far my favourite. They were easy to work with and took the paint well, which means I should be able to get a good variation and texture across a full 6x4 or slightly larger of course. At £15.50 for 1m it comes in 34.50 (including shipping) for a 2x1.5m section or 6ft 6in x 4ft 11in approximately. That's only slightly larger than my current 6x4 mat so it may become necessary to go a bit bigger just to make sure. The limit is on the width, it won't go above 1.5m as that is the factory standard for this fabric apparently.

I already mentioned I ruled out one of the Yorkshire Fabrics samples as it lacked texture or interest. The other four were based on two patterns, each of two colours. I preferred the effect of the right hand or bottom variation in the pictures above. The other pattern actually looks like it would make a good option for some fields, maybe in a smaller scale, but the patterning is beautiful and really gives a broken ground appearance in my view. Now of the preferred variant it runs in at £18.99 per metre and comes in a maximum width of 1.35m, so running in at close to £37.98 and not as wide as the option above. The "broken ground" variant is more expensive at £26.99 per metre with a width of 1.37m. If they were utterly stunning they would make it a harder choice but with the limited width and increase in cost they get ruled out.

Finally onto MyFabrics. The shorter pile (left side) comes in at £17.05 per metre while the longer pile (and more useful in my view) comes in at £8.95 per metre both at 1.5m width. Even basic arithmetic will let you know that the latter is by far the cheapest option and if I was looking for a faux fur option for a mat then this would be my choice. In fact I may well get some with the option of creating wheat fields, rough grass areas and thatch roofing. The negative I see is perhaps having to trim it down a little unless you want the whole mat looking the same length, which given the effects you can create wouldn't be the worst thing in the world.

So what have I learned? Well samples are a nice option for working stuff out! I'm glad I spent the time and effort running this wee test as it has cleared up in my mind what I am looking to achieve and also how I may go about that. I think I will go with the olive plush but try get it in over 2m length (maybe just go for 3m for ease), perhaps looking to piece some of the extra into adding to the width. We shall see.