The Whole Swamp

Thought to take a picture of All the swamp pieces on a single table, in this case a Card Table:

Table is roughly 3 foot x 3 foot in size, plenty of pieces that can be laid about on a 5 x 9 table. Thinking to make a bunch of 1x1 inch markers with grass on one side and numbers on the other;
2:4 or 3:6 etc for how much infantry and vehicles pay in movement distance to go 1 inch across the edges of the over all bases of the swamp pieces. Then these markers could be randomly applied next to each piece used so No one would have any idea, other than it would Probably have a penalty in movement speed.. hmmm at least one marker would be  0:0 meaning infantry and armor pay no penalty in that piece... hmmm.

Finished Swamp Terrain Piece

Finished several sections of Swamp pieces. I kept the amount of foliage down to a minimum to facilitate placement of troops stands that will be placed on and around them yet blend in with some of my filler jungle pieces. Nothing like a deadline to get the work done.

Reflective surface of the watery areas works pretty well. Thought I might have to use some Woodland Scenics Water or something but feel the existing surface will work out fine.

Venus Terrain Update

Since the lower lands of Venus for the Campaign will be swampy, I set out to create some fast, easy swamp pieces that will cover lots of ground, cheaply.  A 2x4foot sheet of textured florescent lighting cover was only 5$. I broke it into odd shapes, and rounded the corners with a set of heavy scissors. Next step was to lay them out, spray the edge, couple of inches where possible, in green, center areas is blues and browns.

Here is a picture of the stack of bases that I broke, trimmed and sprayed in about half an hours time. Next step was to break out the flocking and PVA glue. Some time was spent squeezing a ring of glue around the edge of each piece, then using my finger to spread the glue. Placing a glue ready piece on a disposable flat surface piece of cardboard I heaped green flocking onto the white glued areas, then used the side of the Closed glue bottle to roll press the flocking into the white glue. Inverting the piece immediately I tapped the excess flocking off. Rinse and repeat each piece.

Here is a shot of the pieces ready for the next step, adding bits of grassy knolls to the wet areas and some foliage bits around the edges and centers. Such foliage as I add will be very low and sturdily attached so that I can store all the pieces by simply stacking them one on top of the other, to minimize the overall amount of space needed to hold them for transport. The only snag in the process was running out of flocking! 2 pieces to edge and centers to add bits to.


And there you have it.

White Water effect for rivers

OK, so you want to show the direction of water flow and that the water is moving fast. Rocks in the river give useful visual info on that.

Three River rocks with foaming water swirling around them is the goal here. For my chasm piece these will allow me to place them when I want a water bottom to the chasm, or pick them up and put down my dry bottom piece I'm working on.

River Rolling test

So, rolled up my new small creek / stream. Left it rolled up for a couple of days.

And here it is a few minutes after being unrolled

About half an hour of room temperature and it was very flat. Total thickness of this smaller creek was about half of my fast water river piece, which I suspect makes a difference in how flat it will lie when totaly relaxed from being rolled up.

Small Curving Stream

So pushing along with the river making idea to test it for a smaller creek, fast water setting. This time I thought to lay out the waterway with lots of small pieces of masking tape to get lots of curves in the 6 foot length.

So moving along, here is a shot of the beginning layout of masking tape. Using lots of small pieces of 2 " tape. I tore many small pieces and hung them on the edge of the work board. I tried not to fall into a fixed back and forth pattern for a more natural look to the creeks bed layout.

Now the picture of the basic layout after much pulling up and relaying tape, I smoothed the tape down but did not press it hard to the board, as I will have to pull it up to turn it over later. So, overall a good start to the creek. I am fairly sure that the thin coats of KS will still tend to curl the first surface upwards, so that when dry it will make the edges cup downwards when I flip it over to do the Water side.  Thoughts are that I will use a putty knife to smooth the KS onto the piece after a fist brush application. Might try pressing the river gravel into the smoother coat as most creeks are loaded with smooth rock.

Hmmm edges of the creek sides are not smooth, they are jagged pieces of tape sticking out this way and that, so out comes the box knife. I also applied a bit more tape over the joints in a few places where I had not given much of an overlap in the first place to help insure that the tape will pull up in one continuous piece.

 Next shot is the process of smoothing the Inside curls of the creek. Which while slowly cutting excess tape off it struck me that I didn't have any widening spots in the creek. Most creeks widen and narrow along their course, so out came the roll of tape with some more trimming.

Sample shot of a widened piece of the creek tape bed along with a reinforcement of the section. I thought about and then decided not to put in a pond on this piece. I am also thinking that I will need some 4 foot and a 5 foot section of creek. I use a 4' x 6' play board matt and the 5 foot will be long enough to allow me to place the creek in an angled direction rather than straight across the board.
First coat of KS went on with a brush, but due to wanting to keep the KS On the tape, I used my finger to smooth it out.

On to the spreading of the thin coats of Kel Seal brushable caulking, same as I did on the roads and large river project.

So here is the flip side after the top side received its 3 layers of caulking and dried. Not much noticeable cupping of the topside when dried. This particular picture is before the last coat, which I tried to apply really smooth, so that it would not appear to be flowing fast but slower.

The smooth coat did not go on a smooth as I was hoping, I used a flat stick to pull over the entire length of the creek in one pass once I had the coating applied. A mix of blue and green paint in equal amounts, thinned with water was brushed on and left to dry. As an aide to keeping the creek "flat" to the board I added small pieces of tape here and there where ever it seemed it wanted to not cooperate.

On with a new experiment. Silicone caulking can be clear, so wanting to know what a "wet" look would do to the piece, on with the experiment. I used a caulking gun to squeeze a line of clear down the middle of the creek, then it was time to get sticky with the finger and spread it over the entire surface of the creek. I deepened the muddy color that I had applied as a was from the previous picture. The gloss coat of Silicone made the color become Darker, when I had tried to Lighten it this go.

To show the glossy finish I took this overhead shot to show the light reflection from the flash. Very shinny indeed. Overall, smaller is not better than the larger 4" wide river compared to the 2" creek pictured here. Is more finicky about lying flat and staying there.  The clear silicone is being slow to fully cure, still a few very slightly tacky places, though I might break out the verathane spray and give it a sealer coat to end that problem. Final thought is that the creek will still be a usable addition to the fast terrain box I take to games. Still have to find a way to apply a coat smoothly without the ripples or streakiness. Also Discovered that its best not to lay one road / river on top of another and then place a heavy object on them Unless both sides have been painted and fully dried, or else the un painted side can stick to the other piece where the weight was. Live and Learn, I painted And applied a new coat of TAPE over the back to make SURE they do not stick to one another :)

Fast River, really

Using the same procedure to make the roads in the fairly previous article on making roads, I made a fast water river section. I laid out a curving Masking Tape river outline and then applied 3 thin coats of Kel Seal brushable caulking to the top of the masking tape, covering nearly all of the tape with those 3 thin coats. When fully dried I carefully pulled up the tape from the work board, flipped it over. Next 1 very thin coat was applied over the sticky side of the tape that was now the "top" side. Let dry, then a second thin coat and after it was on I dabbed the surface in various ways till I got patterns I thought looked "right". Still to be added with be river bank rocks, some plants etc to help visually define it better.

Click on the picture to get a better look at it. I figure to shave off the spiky bits, add a few river rocks here and there, an a touch of white water color

So far I have resisted tearing the excess tape of the edge of the river as I did on the road section, water just seems to have a smoother edge from flow than a dirt packed and worn road surface. Updates on this project as I get to them.

So here's a shot of a dressed river edge setting using some of my "edge filler" brush mounted on Popsicle sticks.  I didn't trim the excess tape off of the river as I did on the road sections to keep it smooth and also was able to use some of those areas to glue on smooth river rock, Aquarium gravel, here and there, plus a few scattered stones sticking up out of the water course.

Here's a close up of the a river rock section. Its just pva glue with the smooth gravel applied, may go and apply another coat of pva over it, give it a very slightly wet look and help to prevent the rock from falling off when I roll up the river for a test of portability.

And a final distance shot of a longer stretch of the river, which has a total length of 6 feet. Still a bit of dry brushing to do as I found that shaving the spiky bits of the dried caulk to be necessary to improve the look, but shaved After I had used the blue wash.... well, it is an experimental piece!

Water Feature Test

Okay, been busy getting ready for Kubla Con, but here is my first water test using Kel Seal smeared on felt. I layered it on then simply Patted the surface with the spreading tool, let dry and then hit with a dark blue wash to bring out features.

Here's Dusty doing that Walk on Water routine that gets him free drinks... As this is a test piece not intended for use, I just had at it. Next will be to use some sort of tool to Touch the KS and lift in small "waves" and ripples. This would probably be a good application around Piers and rocks at the sea shore though, maybe a hit of flotsam bobbing about. Last is a shot of the piece from a distance, choice of color, maybe a light green for choppy bay water or light blue around rapids?

Bit more follows after reading some comments about this water feature with another picture to show a bit more detail of the test piece (note, this is only on a scrap of felt, not planned for use in an actual miniature setting, experimental throw away) In the picture below you can see that the KS does tend to curl up the edge of the felt a bit as it dries and contracts across the surface, I will try doing a smear on the "back" first and let it dry to preset, hopefully, a curl of the top finish side to be downwards.

Now a different try of lapping wavelets done with a short stick. I had to put on more than typical amount of the KS to make for a thick enough surface for the long edge of the stylus stick to catch, move and lift the KS. I left it to dry as you see it. Will take more practice and on a larger area to work out a beach wave piece. Figure to break out the model railroad scenic books I have and study up on it.

Medieval Bridge

Wanting to get away from stone bridges, especially in those parts of Europe that the Romans either did not build them in or that had fallen away to local builders, I did a proof of concept project and built one.

Primary supplies were bamboo skewers for the small timbers, woodland scenic grass for the "fill" and then Light Weight Patch and Paint Spackle to texture the ground. The LWP&P is great as when it is completely dry its pure white, very very porous and takes diluted paint as a stain extremely easily. Do not over wet it as it will melt, wait with it under a drying lamp if you want to get it painted faster.

I went ahead and built up the banks of the river a bit, which then defeated the edges of my trees I set in for the shot, though I suppose if I had scrounged around and found a single base tree it might have sat better for the picture. Wheel ruts were done with a fender washer on a bolt rolled through the Spackle before it had fully set up but not right after I had put it on, I gave it about 10 minutes to surface dry a bit so it would not stick to the washer as I rolled it along. I considered and discarded the idea of some sort of wooden side railing as overbuilding the proof project, perhaps it will make it on to the final project bridge.

A final closer shot of the Pilings lashings. The figure is a 25mm Minifigs Scots Irish footman from sooo long ago I think I purchased it in 1969 and affixed a round shield from the Aroura (sp) Plastic Long ship, it came with something like 40 shields per model and for the price at the time was an excellent source.

The whole piece is mounted on a 12" x 12" x 1/8" thick piece of aluminum that I use for proofing pieces.

River Edgeing

I have some flat travel terrain water ways I made but that looked rather akin to having put a wide blue strip on the terrain Matt. No liking this especially for my western games I looked over pictures of streams and rivers. Behold, Lots of Brush and small trees on the banks. Being that I like to mix up the edging, I made plastic strip bases of 3 to 6 inches long and 1 to 2 inches deep. The edge to be placed along the river / water way I edged in river sand I picked up from the American River near where I live. The stones are from model railroad bag of rock applied singly. The green under coat is in case the flocking is a bit thin, but as the final product is packed with plants and trees I did not spend much time painting it, though I did paint the edge of the plastic base all the way around. The Sand is affixed with Contact Cement as are the rocks, dries fast and lets me move on to the flocking which I did with white pva glue. Applied glue, put on a lot of Flocking and Pressed the flocking down with my fingers, let dry for an hour.




Brushed off Excess flocking and started Hot gluing plants and trees as pictured to the left here. The Brown scrub tree is a wire with loop for a base, contact cement, dipped into the brown chopped flock, pressed and left to dry. The green scrub tree is same process but I used a bamboo skewer from a pack from the super market usually used for Kabobs. The Flat tall grass is long grass from Woodland Scenic spread between 2 coffee sticks that are clapped with small clips, then pva glue run along both sides, left to dry. After drying you can undo the sticks, trim

along the glue edge and pull apart into smaller stands as pictured. The rest is clump foliage from woodland scenics, bits of thin branching for drift wood etc.

With the bases done small, I can scatter them on

both sides of a Stream or Creek helping to visually define the water way better and provide obscuring cover for skirmish games, or more eye catching features for larger mass scale games. Doing the same with slightly smaller bases but extending the sand around the entire edge with Brush or scrub trees in the middle can be used for marshy ground and or swamps, though

swamps I would vary the colors and have more / different types of ground cover. The smaller bases let me follow the curves of a water way, surround a pond or be scattered apart. I used white paper for this last shot and card stock water print for the river just to show how I can deploy the finished edging pieces. The final pieces do not require much space for storage, about 20 of them cover a single sheet of paper and provide plenty of possible cover or a place to just go fishing!