Wargames Scenery
For the Common Man

Project 2: Streams and Rivers

by Howard Whitehouse

Most battlefields bigger than a handkerchief featured waterways of some kind. Let's make an easy system of streams & rivers, of the kind that fit on top of the table surface (we'll talk about sinking water-ways below the surface when we get to modular terrain).

1) Draw a basic plan, or at least decide what you'll need in terms of length, curves, junctions etc. For example, if you have a 6' x 8' table, you are expected to be able to extend a stream from one edge to another, this is a basic minimum! You might decide that you need 12' of stream, 1" wide, 8' of river 2" wide and another 8' of river 4" wide, with 4 bends for each type and a junction for each type to merge into a larger river, You might decide that some of the straight sections - which don't have to be too straight - are 12" long, others 6". There is no right or wrong, the key issue being that the adjoining ends all fit together property - a 2" river section should not be 2 1/2" wide at one end, though it can do whatever you like in the middle, Allow at least 1/2" on either side of the river for the banks.

2) Draw out the pieces on a base. Good quality cardboard will suffice for smallish, fairly short streams - it's easy to cut - but I prefer to cut mine out of hardboard, angling the 'banks' at 45 degrees. Do this now.

3) The question of water. There is no perfect way of modelling water. Our friends in the model railway fraternity have a number of techniques that are useful to us, and some that aren't. The easiest approach is to paint the base either blue - the traditional colour - brown, green or grey. My friend Drew Doyle makes superb blue rivers, while I tend towards brown.

Drew tells me he will merge some green paint nearer the bank, some black in the middle to give an effect of depth. I'll go for a base coat of greyish brown and overspray some green. You have a choice whether to gloss the river right now (I would, he wouldn't) or to put the banks in place. Glossing can be done with clear polyurethane, sprayed or brushed on, with boat varnish, or with artists' Gloss Medium. Several coats may be needed for a good finish, I've seen some great water effects with resin, but you have to dam either end of the piece, which is hardly reasonable if you have 25 pieces. Experiment and see what works. Most of these things stink to high heaven, so use good ventilation. Let it dry well.

4) Put the banks on. If you've already glossed the river, you may wish to glue some scrap slivers of wood along the banks to help secure the plaster mix, which will be a thick putty of plaster, sand or sawdust, and enough paint to colour it a good earth shade. Smear this along the banks, making sure that the landward side slopes gradually - the water-ward side can be as steep as you like. Insert some small stones, broken twigs etc into the wet putty and sprinkle a flocking mixture on top of that. Let it dry.

5) Finish off by filling in any areas that need touch up paint - the base along the edges especially and add small bushes, stones etc to your taste. Trees, even. Remember that river banks often have much denser vegetation than the immediate surroundings.

6) If you've chosen to gloss last, do so, taking care not to make the banks shiny tool.

Great! Two projects down. Let's go back to the beginning and look at the wargames table as a whole.

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© Copyright 2000 Hal Thinglum
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