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Molerats and tufts philosophy

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It was a pretty low key week hobby wise but I have a few things to show off that will hopefully be of interest. Let’s get straight into it and see what I’ve been up to.

I finished off two more molerats which means I not only finished off the triad I own but also completed another box of Fallout minis. Not bad! They certainly look consistent and nice next to each other. I wouldn’t mind if Modiphius made a couple more with different sculpts or maybe even some more dangerous molerats. I want to say the Queen is one of the worst in the game but I might be wrong. Either way, that is more minis out of my backlog and ready to be used on the tabletop when I get around to it.

Next up we have this humble objective marker. Those are fusion cores that someone might use to keep their power armor suit going. That many in one place would be a rare and valuable find indeed. It was pretty straightforward and not terribly interesting to paint. That was kind of my week painting. Getting stuff done even if it wasn’t super exciting so it is off my painting desk.

I did want to mention that last week’s whinge was productive in that it not only lit a fire under me to try and get some hobby supply issues solved but also gave me some new ideas to consider. I’ve been thinking about how to add variety to my painting queue and the suggestion from two of you to consider having more display pieces to work on definitely got me going in the right direction. Unfortunately, Games Workshop has some shipping issues currently so once I had finally decided on a mini I wanted to paint, they were out of something I needed for that mini, and since they are telling people it may take a month to get their orders (I’m guessing this is due to their big release of Cursed City), I decided to hold off. I have picked up some primer yesterday and I bought a couple of fantasy sculpts that are not from GW so that should be a nice surprise coming soon too.

The other thing I did do was splash some cash for new tufts! Now, I take my tufts very seriously and have a nice collection of them. This is from being an MESBG painter where they are vital to bringing your minis’ bases to life (in my opinion anyway) but honestly, I like all kinds of tufts and find them handy to have available. Fallout mostly has dead-looking grass so there isn’t a huge range of tufts that work well in the post-apocalyptic setting but I want to share what I bought and already started using on the miniatures pictured above because I think some of you might find it interesting/useful. Also, please enjoy my beautiful tablecloth which is back by popular demand!

Starting on the right, Army Painter is a brand everyone knows and they’re easy and cheap to get. With that said, I actually am becoming less and less of a fan of their tufts. Not because they are low quality but because they are too uniformly round in a way that is not realistic. So if you only use Army Painter tufts, the grass on your base won’t look realistic. Next up is MiniNatur, which is a product that has been around a while and is made for model trains. It comes in a huge variety of heights and styles and I find it to be of a higher quality for a very reasonable price. I don’t like all of their tufts (some are a flat, one color which is not very realistic) but the buffalo grass has multiple color tones, nice irregular patterns, and the tufts in a package vary in height from 2-4 millimeters (or taller if you need it) which ups the realism. This week I got some new tufts from Scenic Express that are once again for model railroads but I think they’ll work for wargaming in a pinch too. For $11 (only three quid more MiniNatur!), you get almost double the amount. Its hard to tell from the picture but they do seem a little “thinner” and potentially more frail than either MiniNatur or Army Painter but everything else about them is quality in terms of appearance. Martin Welberg seems like a company to watch as they have a lot of other interesting groundworks related products that I would like to try in the future. If you’re into dioramas, I’d say give them a look. I know I will be buying more from them in the future. I hope you enjoyed reading about miniature fake grass and of course, I’d be interested to hear what kind of tufts you like and prefer as well.

21 thoughts on “Molerats and tufts philosophy”

    1. I would have thought tufts would be quite useful for most WWII minis except maybe any games in Stalingrad or other urban environments! If you do decide to branch out, Model Display Products is a good source of tufts (particularly MiniNatur) on your side of the pond. I used to order from them before I found a faster US source 🙂

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  2. The painting looks great Jeff, and good you got the marker done, as uninspiring pieces can linger around for ages.
    As for tufts, if I add them I roll my own, using a mix of colours from long strands then trim to height. The bit I like about this is I can make it the exact size I want, and can vary the colours by adding more or less of any of the tones

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    1. Thank you, Dave! I have seven more objective markers to paint so I know exactly what you mean. Most of them are way more complicated and time consuming than the one I just finished so they are really taking a while to paint…

      I’ve heard about making tufts yourself and I’ve never tried it because I’d rather save a bit of time and buy pre-made ones but being able to control color and height does make it quite a bit more tempting!

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  3. I’ve got a few packs of the old Army Painter tufts left which were a lot less consistent, and a few of their new/current range, but I picked up a lot of packs from a range called “Gamer’s Grassy” which has some nice variety in both shapes of the blobs of grass as well as sizes available. Having said that, I also tend to cut them into irregular shapes with a scalpel to avoid the piles of little circles of grass…

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    1. I’ve never tried cutting them up though I probably should as I imagine it would be pretty easy to do. Gamer’s Grass is one I’ve heard good things about but never actually picked up. Might be one I give a shot in the future, especially if these model railroad tufts prove to be too fragile.

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  4. Nasty looking mole rats! It’s always nice to knock off some mindless objectives, need to be done but basically game clutter.
    Regarding tufts, I just bought some, gamersgrass highland set. Rather expensive but a nice variety of sizes and shapes. They also have some called alien sets if you want some different colors. I have also done some experimenting with some army painter ones, tried some dry brushing on some and also dipping the top into glue and then some woodland scenics yellow flower material. Just did that for my dwarf statue on the one ring.

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    1. Thanks, Bret and I completely agree on getting another objective done. It always feels good to get some backlog stuff done too. You’re the second person to recommend Gamer’s Grass so I will definitely give them a shot in the future. I just saw your update on One Ring and I was wondering what you’ve been up to! I’m excited about your Dwarf project (as you can probably tell from my comment I left on OR) and look forward to seeing more progress as you get it done 🙂

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    1. Cheers mate and that sounds like a more economical approach than what I take. I will have to give chopping them up a try and see how that goes, especially for the ones that are too uniform.

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  6. More great work done. I find the mole rat sculpts a bit underwhelming but you do great brushwork that brings them to life.

    That pile of fusion cores looks like it was sculpted by someone familiar with the game asset art but who has not played the game. Can anyone correct me if I am wrong, but there is not a single collection of fusion cores like that anywhere in the game… even spent. You did paint it well though.

    You tuft selection is much more artistic than mine, which has been determined largely but what was won in the cheapest of eBay auctions. I respect your opinion on them however and agree with your assessment on the strengths and weakness of the various brands.

    I tried to make some of my own since we have ALOT of static grass won in bulk auctions but have not been satisfied with the results so far…. which means I really respect those that do it successfully.

    Whatever you decide to make next I look forward to seeing it.

    And that blanket….is…. special….

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    1. Thanks mate and I thought the same as you on the fusion cores. If you are in the Brotherhood of Steel finding those fusion cores would be like winning the lottery!

      I know what you mean about making your own tufts, there is definitely an art to it and that is a big reason why I don’t mind paying for someone to make them for me!

      The tablecloth is the finest from Peru. From what I gather it is a fairly common among some areas of Peru, Argentina, and others. Its not to my taste but sacrifices must be made in any relationship!

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  7. Lovely molerats, just the right amount of horrible I reckon. I do like them as animals but there’s no escaping the fact that they’re hellish ugly!

    As for the tufts I know I’m a bit of a savage but I just pick them up wherever I can get them cheap, usually ebay and just try to keep a stock of different sizes/colours/heights/shapes. If I need to, as others have said, I chop them up and stick them back together to make different shapes. Beyond that I just try to theme them to whatever the miniature is I’m painting, so I always use rich, dark-green tussocks for Blood Bowl or dead, wintery vegetation for the undead.

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    1. Molerats are quite ugly little things and I can see why they used them as enemies in Fallout!

      That is pretty savage! 😀 I completely agree that I like to find tufts that match the style/ground work of whatever I am working on. That is a big reason why I’ve accumulated so many of them over the years too! 🙂

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  8. The table cloth is BACK! It reminds me of a fever dream I had about Peru.

    Great on finishing another box of miniatures! That’s called progress and progress is good.

    It is frustrating when one runs short on supplies. I get all my tufts and stuff off of scenic express. I’ve found that when you buy the model railroading stuff it tends to come with more product and looks better than stuff from army painter. 😀

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    1. Enjoy the table cloth while it lasts 😉 I feel like we’re always running out of one hobby supply or another but when you aren’t prepared and get hit with multiple expensive things that you NEED, that is where it can become annoying. I’m glad to hear someone else uses Scenic Express, I think they’re great and you’re right that their has excellent value overall. It truly is a great choice for any miniature connoisseur 😀

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    1. Thank you Mikko and I have heard of Tajima but had forgotten about them. I like the range of tufts they have available and some of the tufts are unlike any others I have seen. Thank you for the recommendation! 🙂

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    1. Thanks for the kind words and that review made for some good reading too! SEM seem to do flower tufts quite well indeed. I will definitely keep them in mind for future purchases now based on the review and your recommendation.

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