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.
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.
I used them for my Russian Scouts game. You’ll notice all the woods features have Sisal templates.
Notice the Sisal templates under the trees
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.
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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Steven
Amazon UK has this in various colours:
Tangle Tuff Pressed Abaca Sisal Wrap Mesh Roll
Richard
Thanks Richard. Same stuff, different supplier to the one I found … and different colours. Light green, dark green and brown all look like possibilities.
To save folk searching, the link is … Tangle Tuff Pressed Abaca Sisal Wrap Mesh Roll.
I have found a color I like to use here in the US called Chocolate. When placed over a green mat or foam it looks good.
Interesting. I can imagine how that might work well. Thanks Andrew