One of my last big purchases was one set of weathered 6mm roads and 2 sets of 15mm fields. Ever since being gifted a 25mm set of roads (that I use for 20mm and propably will with 15mm as well) and purchasing a large European Fields mat with hexes from Hotz Mats I've been a great fan as it gives you quality stuff that doesn't weigh a ton, stores easily and looks very good on the table.
As I will be downsizing a bit the 15mm field set and the 6mm road set came into view.
I'll start off with the 6mm road set, weathered. As you can see in the pics the white lines are faded, and darker bits have been airbrushed on, representing brake marks and new asphalt patches, to give the idea of a well used roadway. I requested a white line set, and the weathering cost me an additional 10$ on top of the 35$ for the 28 piece set. The set contains 10 long straight sections, 2 intersections, 2 short straight sections, 3 T sections (one of them is trimmed a little too short compared to the others), 1 straight section that is actually a intersection but missing 2 exits (don't know how else to say this, sorry!), 4 quarter turn circles and 6 1/8th turn circles. This should more then suffice the average micro armour table IMHO. Quality is excellent (bar the what I think is a miscut) and it looks like it should look when combined with micro armour. I base mine on 40x20mm bases and 1 of these fits nicely in a lane so the size is fine for me. Unbased micro armour should have no problem with this either. In the end, 45$ is a lot of money, but the ability to create good looking roads quickly and repeatedly has proven a bonus in 20mm games and will continue to do so in 6mm games, of that I am sure. You also have the benefit of not having to make your own, source the materials, find the time etc. I know that sounds all too logical but can be a big deal to some.
The 15mm field set. Compared to other Hotz Mats offerings these are very low cost. 1 set of these will set you back 16$ dollars with each set after that costing you 14$. Each Felt Field Set contains six individual fields in four sizes: two 4x4inches (10x10cm); two 7.5x6inches (19x15cm); one 11.75x6inches (30x15.5cm); and one 9.75x8inches (24.5x19cm). Total area coverage is 20x14 inches (50x35cm). I picked these up with the road set because they have a picture din their display using it with 6mm vehicles, and it fits very nicely. I've made fields for 6mm before, but these were always on plastic so took up quite a bit of space unless I made them small. So this is excellent, just pick it up and put it into a box, practically no weight to them, and the added benefit that they work with multiple scales. They are well sized for 6mm and will be nice crop patches for my 15mm and 20mm armies. The sets themselves are mixed colour wiseso each pack varies in its content, but the sizes remain the same. To be even better for larger scales these fields really need to be a bit larger, if they could double the size of some of these fields it would be grand. As it is, these won't stand out next to a Russian or French farmhouse. If you are ordering a mat and have some spare cash, I'd say add one of these packs, it won't let you down.
In conclusion I will bore you with some technical details.
I made the order on the 19th of May, received a quote for shipping of the lot on the 20th of May, paid for said lot on the 21st of May. On the 29th of May I received an email telling me the lot had been shipped to my location (The Netherlands) and the package arrived on the 5th of June. All in all I had a very fast turnaround.
Total cost was 35$ for the 6mm roadways plus 10$ for the weathering, plus 30$ for 2 sets of 15mm fields. Total postage for this lot was 12$. Total cost for the entire order was 87$ dollars, or 70 euros in todays exchange rate. Not something I can do every month, but for a planned purchase more then fair. It is the kind of thing to order as a group as well, cust down on the shipping costs and the group gets a or several nice mats in return.
I hope you found this informative, I've put this online to show what is available, how I feel about it and what the costs involved are.
_________________
Who is Gunbird? Johan van Ooij, Dutch, Mercenary Gamer, travels around to get in the occasional game. Current flavour of the month - 6mm BGO. My Blog >>
http://20mmandthensome.blogspot.com/
