Making a wargame mat with hexes

I've decided to make a wargame mat with 4" wide hexes. This is primarily for my American Civil War collection. I have previously played ACW battles using my "Double Canister" rules on a 3" hex grid as you can see here. Those three inch hexes can get pretty crowded so I'd like to move to a 4" grid. This project began with a piece of green tie-dyed fleece that I bought at a fabric store. The original fleece is really bright, eye-popping bright! It hurts! So I bought three colors of camoflauge paint at the Home Depot; brown, green and tan. These paints come in spray cans and they are very neutral colors and they are completely flat. After painting a test piece, I went to work. I started by painting the edges of the fabric with the brown paint and then randomly sprayed sections of fabric with the brown. Next I used the green paint to somewhat cover the fabric and bring the oveerall tone of the color way down. Finally some tan highlights here and there.

The next step was to add the hex grid. I printed out a 4" hex template of disconnected hex edges. I think that the edges form a more recognizable hexagon than if I had only painted the vertices of each hex. I printed the template on cardstock and then used an Xacto knife to cut small holes at the end of each line segment. These holes are just big enough to allow a #0 brush to paint a small dot of color on the fabric. So using the template, I paint two hexes worth of dots on the fabric. Then using a flat shader brush I paint the edge, connecting the dots. I water down the acrylic paint, and paint one straight stroke between the two dots. Finally I go back with a second stroke in the opposite direction to work the line into the fleece material. In the photo below you can see the two brushes I am using and the light gray paint bottle.

The first row of 18 hexes, covering six feet of fleece, took me about an hour to paint. The rows after that have gone quicker because there are fewer line segments to paint, and I am getting more proficient. Last night I did an entire row in 30 minutes! So far I have done 4 of the 12 rows required. These hexes will allow me to comfortably place six infantry figures, 3 cavalry, or an artillery piece with 3 crew, in a hex. I am looking forward to getting these soldiers out of their box and on to the game table! Although, once I finish the ground mat I will need to make hill pieces that fit this 4" grid! One project creates another.