Lead Adventure Forum
Other Stuff => General Wargames and Hobby Discussion => Topic started by: pops on April 16, 2022, 04:45:51 PM
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Hi,
I am looking to put some rivers on my gaming table – I am looking for a nice realistic, artistic, close to the mat river system. Any recommendations?
Thanks
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I like those done by Last Valley.
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Pop's,
I'm about a day away from building a cheap near table edge river. With the intention of doing a tutorial. The only basic spend/requirement is a perspex clip Art / poster frame.Then its just a case of using what ever you have in stock. Depending on the brand of frame and the level of texture applied your river profile with this method is around 4mm.
If you've got a printer then printing off a couple images of aerial views of rivers. That would increase your realism. Other wise it's painting a river ( in the tutorial)
Even cheaper than the Last valley ones ;)
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I'm about a day away from building a cheap near table edge river. With the intention of doing a tutorial.
A tutorial would be excellent!
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Thanks for the input guys.
Tin Shed, please let me know when your tutorial is done
Sounds great!
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I've got a small set of river pieces that I did a while back using the tutorial for water pieces that DM Scotty did on youtube.
The basic thing was to get the flexible, translucent folders or similar things from the office supply store (the ones where it's largely transparent, but has a slight cloudy look to it when further away from things. Cut it to pieces for your water and either do edges on it or scatter, then use blown glossy mod podge for ripples ontop.
I've got a box of them somewhere that I made.
If you aren't looking for forks and similar, the pegasus hobbies river pieces are nice, especially if you're willing to repaint them. They're quite sturdy, and you can still cut them up to work in some custom pieces if you need them. There is also a pretty decent 3D printed set you can find on Amazon...I think Ender Toys is the maker, but I'm in the US so there might be someone else doing the same prints elsewhere
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I've got a small set of river pieces that I did a while back using the tutorial for water pieces that DM Scotty did on youtube
Ooh, that is a good tutorial:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0n6z7GZFXd4&ab_channel=TheDMsCraft
I really love the way he does the rushing water at one end — that's a brilliant solution to be able to overlap the pieces and hide the infernal joints between pieces. The little rock weight pieces are genius too.
I've been stalling for several years in making the final Pocantico River pieces for Sleepy Hollow, this is the way I'll be going!
I think I'll spray paint the back side of each one brown/grey for a consistent bed colour.
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I made a cheap easy river recently - printed paper on cardboard with gloss varnish. Quick, simple, cheap, easy to store, and sits flush with the terrain.
(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn-lprFPQIb1kXKwSYClkjvDjhofLUAMR4taN8oxd4f3s8eu5Wb_KarbUgBJ16UOuUbc72_ZBMDaXwXduiB5qON4uk_NH8dBlQJ9BDVkW8zw5Rg2K8CP4LIXUS1yRwPIRigc6IP7JYsgk5qZ8ReZDwqIbnzW9LtXBR9acWNJmnCduQ-SR-Yf7tVM0B/s4032/BMC%20Minis%20Fistful%20of%20Lead%20French%20Indian%20War%20(2).jpg)
See: https://frictionbmcminiatures.blogspot.com/2022/02/golgothas-terrain-river.html
https://frictionbmcminiatures.blogspot.com/2022/04/golgothas-games-french-indian-war.html
https://frictionbmcminiatures.blogspot.com/2022/02/golgothas-games-spqr-alexandrian.html
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Great info - thanks everyone! Golgotha - those are great! Hard to believe that is just paper covered with a varnish!
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Another advantage is that you could then have a number of different rivers instead of just one.
Different colours and scales of river, for instance, to match different periods and collections. In this way, you could probably also use real photographs of a real river, which I do want to try.
I think most gamers likely only have one river and always using the same one again and again does get limiting tiresome and boring.
I do want to scratch build a resin pour river with little rocks and reeds etc. at some point but until then the paper and varnish route works surprisingly well.
I am going to be trying these next see: https://www.wargamevault.com/product/386188/The-River-Stream-60-30mm-6mm-10mm?src=hottest_terrain_products
I used this companies fields here for example, notice also the bodies of water: https://frictionbmcminiatures.blogspot.com/search/label/ECW
Placing bridges and river crossings becomes easier too with a flat paper river.
See also Pulp Alley what they use for sea and riverside:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZayBpXrZtu8&ab_channel=PulpAlley
My version of this here: https://frictionbmcminiatures.blogspot.com/2022/01/golgothas-wwii-pacific-island-us-vs.html
For a Vietnam river see Little Wars TV:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WESUr1msIO0&ab_channel=LittleWarsTV
The question then is also how to make a quick easy and effective waterfall that does not take up too much room...
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Great info - thanks everyone! Golgotha - those are great! Hard to believe that is just paper covered with a varnish!
goodness me, yes- that does look great.
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For vinyl tile river possibilities see: http://shedwars.blogspot.com/2012/10/big-rivers_21.html
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Some really interesting ideas - I think it is the shine that is really important. I’ve got some cardboard river sections from the Battle of Five Armies box set and they get used quite a bit and these have a high gloss finish - I keep meaning to flock the banks as these look a bit odd in gloss!
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I wonder if a mad lad has ever used running water on a gaming table...
Figure it wouldn't be too hard with all the aquarium stuff out there - some latex river bits, etc. The babbling brook might be calming while you're getting your models shot off the table...
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:o :o ??? ???
I feel this is the way to turn the whole table to a lake!
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If you're looking to buy, you can't go wrong with roads and rivers from Fat Frank:
https://www.ebay.com/str/fatfrankswargaming
I have both. Great stuff!
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Great idea, Golgotha!
If you haven't already sunk money into a gaming table, TerraTiles has an upcoming Gamefound campaign.
2D and Expensive with today's shipping, but the hex shapes make generating a random setup for solo / coop easy. Plays well with 3D terrain.
(http://thevikingshaul.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/CaR_3_grande.jpg)
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I dare anyone to try real water - that would be cool.
Geek Villain do these rivers https://geekvillain.co.uk/collections/self-cut-out-terrain not sure how good they would look but they do nice mats.
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I dare anyone to try real water - that would be cool.
The 'rivers' in the tomb of the Terracotta army, used mercury.
I really do not recommend that. :-X
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Another option https://bigredbatshop.co.uk/collections/all/products/stream-for-use-with-mats
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Yet another option are these water sheets by Green Stuff - see: https://www.greenstuffworld.com/en/117-water-sheets
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Yet another option are these water sheets by Green Stuff - see: https://www.greenstuffworld.com/en/117-water-sheets
If you're going to use them and cut them up, a better option would be to look at the translucent sheets sold at a lot of hardware stores to cover lights and cutting them to shape.
A friend of mine used them in 2' and 3' square picture frames to make some ocean boards for tournaments with a naval game. Just paint the backing in the frame for coloration and put the sheets over it...they'd end up about the same price for the sheets as well and get you a whole lot more.
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Sounds like a cheaper alternative cheers SotF - one thing about many river options I dislike is the join so here with a possible join free solution - see:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpeWWoGd1r8&ab_channel=KnightsOfDice
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If you're looking to buy, you can't go wrong with roads and rivers from Fat Frank:
https://www.ebay.com/str/fatfrankswargaming
I have both. Great stuff!
It's good to see FAT FRANK is still on the go. I bought some roads from him years ago. I passed them on to a friend when I lost interest in that project, but they were very nice.
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I hear this one (https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?action=profile;u=1615) comes highly recommended... :D
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lol lol lol
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I dare anyone to try real water - that would be cool.
It wouldn't look good enough! lol
I mean think about how much wargamers paint rocks and sand to look like rocks and sand!
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Herewith, another river this one is considerably smaller than the previous and perhaps then better suited to smaller scales like 10mm. Pictured is only 2 of what must be around 12 odd pieces so I can make it into a relatively long waterway. Made in the same way as before...
(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCRpVXKOyps_z8RZsUU5yJVxNXzh0_pvy3_F5AXTpX-rmDtABfiqn7Oc8nMseLKoh7iaC45z7QPOJCATtA7D5m6Hp9h4nu8-7ah9hXuSWYYhPZpoKG3-jiaweaXnmiP4I04Kd279wdVxlzQIRoj0FQ-GjMjiG6B3beOO-JYPhvXVmGMtkIHbZX9Z2g/s320/20220709_165602.jpg)
(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoLPNXNCAUcrp-01NO-1vE0BjUPuX7230FsGvPM_SYkJq_DjyY1EJnnSQCpuxW-AO0vX06_XNgYaZQySGju3Btulr1uzKbiNzXwaUiYu7dbxfc-xTtYSMb3akKO6kwBeF4__uEccbM-1B_6DHTC7KUsSSVoXhz8_4ZDNaEZqTNqM-FJnrdD8agucOV/s4032/20220709_165610.jpg)
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A recently built river and waterfall.
As it was for a 3'x3' table I made the river as a single piece. It's 3mm MDF with blue foam banks; shaped, textured and flocked. Water effect is just 4 coats of gloss varnish. The waterfall is separate (for easier storage) an was made from blue foam, with Clearfix for the water effects.
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/55/369-250722075812-5592879.jpeg)
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/55/369-250722080010-55935724.jpeg)
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/55/369-250722080010-55934426.jpeg)
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/55/369-250722075502-55926677.jpeg)
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That is AWESOME love the waterfall. Very well done!
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I 3d print mine in hard plastic, they lie perfectly flat and never warp.
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Those do look useful Two Inches of Felt, especially for smaller scales are these them? https://www.wargamevault.com/product/404028/River-and-Bridge-Terrain-2mm-6mm-10mm?src=newest_recent
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Yes, that's the file!
I printed three 6 inch sections every night for a few weeks and now I have more rivers then I'll ever need for my table, haha.
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I used to use blue carpet tape stuck down on the table. It could be a bit too sticky and you had to cut into short pieces to get a decent curve but when edged with lichen and the odd tree it looked quite good as no height or edge to it.
You can get blue masking tape which I may well try.
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That is a brilliant idea Armchairgeneral and roads and railway lines too...
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That is a brilliant idea Armchairgeneral and roads and railway lines too...
Yes actually I think it was duct tape and we used to get the brown sort for roads. It would be good if some enterprising company would produce a masking tape with pre-printed river effects/dirt roads.
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Another possible river source these are relatively cheap...
https://www.battlezone-miniatures.co.uk/shop/category/2420
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Great tips and doing water effects here http://www.diorama-dreamland.at/index.php?id=26
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Thinking real water here may be the inspiration - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAmG5G1hXvg&ab_channel=Wyloch%27sArmory
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If you are doing 28mm and especially doing Frostgrave etc then this may work as well.
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Wargaming-Rivers-Lake-Neoprene-Battlemat-Water-Terrain-15-Pieces-4-Wide/433909990
It's not a bad set overall, The prices vary a lot though so if you can pick it up at a good price it is worth it