Hotz Mats fields and thinking too much.

2 Years ago I bought 3 packs of Hotz fields after getting a test batch off him for free. Today I was wondering 3 things. 1. These antibiotics are making me really sleepy. 2. I wonder if I have enough Hotz Mats fields? and 3. In what condition would they be now after I got quite a bit of use out of them but not so much more lately.

Well, after having a good solid sleep-in I decided to get the box down from the attic and answer question 2 and 3.

The box is a slighly oversized then A4 shipping box meant for motherboards, which I picked up a big stack of from my previous job. As you see, my collection fits nicely, with the bigger fields folded double.

First part of the box with mostly bigger fields

Second part of the box with mid to small fields, some overlap.

Last 3 bits.

So, in total I have enough mats to cover a area of 80x160 cm and have some left over. I had just sold my 28mm German collection so had the money and since I'm about investing 80% into scenery and 20% into (new or 2nd hand) miniatures I did a quick bit of math. 1 set of mats covers 55 x 36cm (making me realise I have 6 sets of mats, and I think I picked up) 2 sets second hand along the way somewhere), costs 13 dollars plus 8 dollars in shipping (or so it says on the site, when you click Paypal directly the charge is 6 dollars shipping). Another full table (with spares left over) would set me back 67 dollars including shipping....roughly 60 euros then. For the amount of space covered not a bad deal really.

But let's loook at the practicality of things. My table ranges from 4x4 to 4x6 (or 122x122cm to 122x183cm in Euromath) With what I have now I can cover almost an entire 4x4 table or half the 4x6 table in fields. Granted, it is a mix of 6-15mm version and 20-28mm version, but in all practicality they work fine side by side...not all fields are alike anyway. That is a lot of fields. And enough for me now.

So, what is lacking scenery wise? Well, using the 80x80 table as a rule of thumb, and looking purely at 20mm (as weird as it sounds to you cause my focus has been away from that for a while now), I want to completely fill it with trees, fill 1/4 of it with hedges, fences and other boundary markers, have enough houses for various locations to fill at least a full table, and enough defences to fill a complete table as well (bunkers, minefields, wire sections, AT ditches.

As it stands now, I have 100 proper pinetrees that are single based and I want to rebase in groups of tree with removable bases, plus a box of mixed trees that need to be reflocked and hardened, so I'm pretty sure I can cover a 80x80 area. Hedges and fences, i'm 25% there and this is another focus point. 20mm houses....I have a ton of Wikkywokk stuff and I really should sell some more stuff and order off of him as soon as I know what items I would like to add to my board. Right now I have enough for a nice French village with factory, houses and community centre. Thx to the cobblestone mat I can put them on proper flooring too. Defences I'm halfway in terms of stuff ready to paint thanks to a great set of AT ditches I have and lot's of log MG bunkers that I have. As soon as I pick up a few boxes of PSC Marders I will add AT log bunkers to that as well thx to the spare barrels, plus some tank turret defences and lot's or wire defences.

And just to hit myself in the back of the head, 99% of that is stuff I can do right now without spending any money for it cause I have the stuff for it already. I just made a nice A4 sheet, printed a to-do list on it and stuck it up to the board just because.

What I should put money into is another box of tufts and greeneries cause the last time I checked, things were running low and with lots of scenery planned I'm going to need it. But that is for another night.

If the Hotz Mats fields interest you, you can find them right here: Hotz Mats Fields