Making a river

Back in March 2012 I attended the West Midlands Military Show other wise known as Alumwell. Must admit it was the first time I had attended for a while, at least since it had moved to its new venue (I think its been at the new venue for at least five years). Amongst the few purchases were some river sections from Products for Wargamers.

 

 

Now because a bought a few road sections from them as well I got a discount. Which is exactly why I got the river sections. As they are they are perfectly useable but I wanted to 'tart' them up. By buying the pieces pre-cut it saved me the trouble. So for about the last two weeks, I've been working on making myself a river.

 



 

So to begin with I cut out some card pieces to shape the banks. Stuck them down with PVA and then covered the sides with filler, to give it a slope. The original pieces have banks built up with sand/grit so I wanted to smooth this out ready for the next stage. 

 

 

Once again I've used the paper/kitchen towel with PVA glue to cover the bank and give them a better shape and then put sand onto the banks to give it a bit of texture in places.

 



 

Now I was quite impressed with the result so far. So I decided to make some more pieces myself. I just happened to have a sheet of 3mm hardboard lying around. So some twenty minutes later, after using the handy jigsaw (and Mrs G. said it would be a waste of money! 'What do you need a jigsaw for?' She said). I had cut myself a couple of small straights and corners plus a ford. To make the banks on these I quickly cut up some corrugated card, stuck it to the edges and then covered in filler. N.B. the edges of the hardboard bases are not bevelled and I used the original pieces as templates.. For the ford I placed some thin card where the road will be to make it easier to represent a slope into the water. Once the paper and sand were on, all the pieces were sprayed grey (Halfords car primer again) and then painted and flocked. 

 

 



 

 

 

The banks have been painted in suitable earth colours with some 'sandy beach' areas (inspired by a boating lake at a local stately home). The river I have painted in GW colours, old colours I hasten to add. These are Dark Angels Green, Scaly Green and finally a dry brush of Catachan Green (as recommended in the Making Terrain guide by GW). I have then applied three coats of Ronseal gloss varnish to the river to give the water a sheen. The footbridge I've put on one of the small straights is an old metal model. I think it was from Skytrex. I've had it for years (literally). The river is for use with 28mm figures, though its more of a stream now.

 

Overall I'm happy with the result. I left off reeds, small stones etc from the sides of the river for ease of storage.  Now I just need to find a suitable bridge, or make one.