Terrain Templates from Sisal Florist Mesh Wrap

I’m always on the hunt for better wargaming kit. So a couple of years ago I experimented using Sisal Florist Mesh Wrap for terrain templates.


Mysterious mesh terrain templates at the Big Red Bat Cave

At a wargame at the Big Red Bat Cave, i.e. Simon Miller’s place, I noticed Simon was using some interesting mesh as his terrain templates. The gaps meant you could see the table top through it. They were also light weight and I suspected quite durable. I wanted some.

You can see some of Simon’s features on his Cremona Battle Report.

Big Bat Cave with Bloody Cremona at Partizan 2014
Big Bat Cave with Bloody Cremona at Partizan 2014

On the day I got sucked into the game and forgot to ask Simon about it. But I did follow up a few months later. Unfortunately Simon couldn’t tell me much about it:

The material you refer to is a sort of gift wrap, which looks like hairs layered irregularly over each other. I bought mine from Costco; it’s designed to go around the outside of other sorts of wrapping as an extra layer. I’m not sure whether it is a Christmas or all year round thing. I’m afraid I have no other leads for you… good luck!


Sisal Florist Mesh Wrap

So I went hunting and found “Sisal Florist Mesh Wrap”. To be precise it was “46cm x 5yards Pressed Sisal Abaca Wrap Dark Green (3355)” sold by CNG Florist Sundries LTD on Amazon USA, UK, and Canada.

Sisal Wrap Terrain Templates of different sizes
Sisal Wrap Terrain Templates of different sizes
Sisal Wrap Terrain Templates on table
Sisal Wrap Terrain Templates on table
Sisal Wrap Wood Template
Sisal Wrap Wood Template

I used them for my Russian Scouts game. You’ll notice all the woods features have Sisal templates.

Russian Scouts enter table
Russian Scouts enter table
Notice the Sisal templates under the trees
Sisal Wrap - Russian Scouts Table from on high
Sisal Wrap – Russian Scouts Table from on high
All the woods are on Sisal templates

In my Monster game I used both the Sisal terrain templates and cardboard. The overall effect is okay, but you can easily spot the Sisal if you are looking for it.

Sisal Wrap - Monster table
Sisal Wrap – Monster table

Conclusion

Positive: Sisal mesh is very light weight so easy to cut out and store.

Negative: The colour I used is wrong. Too blue-green. It would be good to find something more green-brown. But I guess green-brown is not a popular colour for gift wrapping. I did try “50cm x 5m Sisal Mesh Wrap Natural (3632)”, also aold by CNG Florist Sundries LTD (Amazon USA, UK, and Canada), however, the blue-green was better. Simon Miller’s templates were a better colour – but I don’t know how to find them.

On balance I considered the experiment a failure. So I reverted to Making terrain templates from cardboard and flock.

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4 thoughts on “Terrain Templates from Sisal Florist Mesh Wrap”

  1. Steven

    Amazon UK has this in various colours:

    Tangle Tuff Pressed Abaca Sisal Wrap Mesh Roll

    Richard

    Reply

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