The ongoing quest for improved battlefield scenery and terrain includes a need for realistic looking rivers and streams. Rich Hasenauer of Fire & Fury fame, has one of the most inexpensive solutions to great looking waterways. He uses narrow pieces of developed X-ray film which is slightly brown in color.

These pieces were cut in meandering curves and overlaid end to end as the wound there way across the Gettysburg battlefield. He then sprinkled some random sand and gravel along sections of the bank for added effect. On the other end of the spectrum I have seen permanent sections of terrain board with the rivers routed into the surface. The riverbed was then painted in greens, browns and a touch of blue, with rocks and gravel added before the maker poured in a clear epoxy resin which gave the river a true feeling of depth. I have tried the X-ray film route, blue cardstock and even rubber rivers on my own tables.

However a recent trip to an Ace Hardware store proved most beneficial with a visit to the window glazing department. There I found a sheet of clear acrylic safety glazing sheet stock, 1/8th inch thick by 20" X 32". This sold for under $10 by the trade name of "OPTIX", by Plaskolite Inc., and came covered with a protective film of plastic on both surfaces of the material.

To The Workbench

Let us then proceed to the workbench. Being primarily a 15MM gamer I decided on a three inch width for my river sections and half that width for narrower streams. From this one sheet of acrylic I was able to get four 32 inch sections of truly winding river, the key word being winding. From the extra scrap I also picked up two shorter 8 inch sections of river which I cut at an angle on one end to allow me to place the river across the table at an angle.

First off, you must decide how winding you want the river to appear and also the basic width of the waterway. Choosing three inches as a standard width I took a felt marking pen and marked in the width on the top and bottom of the left side of the sheet.

I then drew in a winding random watercourse. The next three sections were drawn in likewise as seen in the drawing. For the sake of simplicity I only drew in the main river sections, but there should be enough scrap for the added short sections. To maintain uniformity pay careful attention to seeing that both ends of each river section conforms to the three inch width limit. The meandering river can grow wider or narrower in its length, but must return to the three inch width where each sections joins the next. You will note from the drawing that I have some sections with really wide bending curves and islands.

Using my Delta table model bandsaw I cut all of the pieces in less than a half hour. Any handyman gamer can do the cutting using an electric sabre saw with a fine toothcd blade. The next step is to trim off the buffed plastic along the cut lines using your "Stanley"#299 Ginzu knife. With a fairly wide brush paint the underside of each panel with one coat of a dark blue acrylic paint and let it dry thoroughly. Turn over the pieces and apply a half inch wide swath of Elmer's white glue along each bank.

I paint the glue on in about sixteen inch wide sections and then apply a heavy layer of Woodland Scenics #B-72, fine brown railroad ballast over the glue, letting it dry befoife shaking off the excess. Vary the width of the bank along the length of the river and also lay in some glue and ballast to form small islands along the way. Once all of the sandy banks are dry go back and paint in a second coat of white glue about 1/4 inch from the edge and down the side edge of each piece.

Apply Woodland Scenics #T-49 scenic grass over this second layer of glue and the side edge and let it dry. For doing these large sections of riverbed you can speed the job along by using a large flat box to both apply the grass and soil and also catch the excess when it is dry. With all of the scenic materials in place I now go back tq the reverse side of the piece and add a second coat of the blue paint. When this is dry I finish the piece by covering all of the blue painted surfaces with 2 inch wide clear packing tape to keep the paint from getting scratched off in use. Put the tape on so that it overlaps the edges of the work and cut off the excess using a sharp razor blade.

Where the end sections butt together, cut off the extra tape with a sharp scissors as a cut with the razor blade will leave a mark that shows thru to the surface of on the top. Placed on the battlefield I try to add eye appeal by putting scenic trees, lichen and small twigs to simulate downed trees along the banks. The acrylic sheeting comes in larger sizes, but the 32 inch length seemed to fit well with my limited storage space. Give some thought to the length of your table as you may need to cut one section shorter to make for a good end to end fit on the table. Smaller streams were done in an inch and a half width using the same techniques. This system should also work well for making ponds and swamps.

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