Bring on the waterworks, multi scale wet scenery.

[YPU]

Some of you may recall the big memoir 44 overlord table I worked on with some friends earlier this year.




Topic on that here: https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=145045.msg1852917#msg1852917

I made over 5 meters of river, and half that again in channels! You'd think I'd be sick of it by now, but I apparently really am a Dutchman at heart. So I still had a lot of materials left over or easy to acquire, and I had this prototype for my first rivers from nearly a decade ago.



Which frankly looked more like a coast like than a river.... You see where this is going. I took the long size of my base material (document folders) and started drafting a modular coast in that size, experimenting with some variants and modules and trying to figure out of it would work in multiple scales.





And then spend way to long humming and hawing about the with of the segments. I wanted it to be wide enough to feel like a big body of water, coastline or large lake at least. But also, unless the game has aquatic or flying units, its "dead space" in effect just a indicator that that part of the table edge can't be used to enter/leave. So spending too much room in it would be a shame as well.

In the end I took the easy route and decided my paper drafts were fine and started the next step, doing one full prototype start to finish with as many of the planned features present as possible. In this case that means cliffs, rocky shores and beaches all. I'll try to keep a tutorial ish guide of my proces here:

Step 1.
I noticed that the channels I made were much less likely to warp then the rivers, even though the channels were narrower than the rivers. The most likely factor here are the taller solid sides I gave them. Simple matchsticks and poly filler. Not wanting to change a wining formula, I'm using this as the "back bone" of my coastal modules as well.



First document folder thoroughly sanded and cut to a wavy shape, I glued the matchsticks down with two part epoxy, as well as tree bark for the cliffs. After that came the rocky sections, simply sand glued down with PVA. I also filled gaps between the cliffs with some sponge, added two stones along the cliff and sealed all that with watered down PVA.






Step 2. The back of the cliff was given a simple hill with foam and filler, and the whole thing got a black and grey zenithal style priming. I make sure the black goes into all the cracks and crevasses so inevitable missed spots of paint will just be dark, and the grey helps give texture, is easier to paint blue, and honestly the rocky shore is near done like this.


 

Step 3. Cliffs and rocks got very thin leperd spotting color modulation and a drybrush, the sea is blue, and I shaped some sandy beaches and blended their color into the waters.




Step 4, the dirty one. I have a good tub full of my special goop. Its a mix of cheap poster paint, PVA glue and a couple of grits of sand. Getting this mix just right so it dries matte, textured and a bit flexible takes a lot of mixing and adjusting, hence the tub full of it. Onto the banks it goes, hiding those matchsticks for good. It has a strong cohesion, wanting to form rounded edges like water on a hot plate. I tease the sides flat with a clean brush, and make sure to get it into the rocky sections as well, otherwise it ends up looking like, well, goop scooped on top of it.




Step 5. Once dry, there were a few small spots to fix with more goop. Nice thing about this stuff is that if you have a particularly rough section you can break away the large grains of sand, and the stuff left behind will still be the same color. This makes this method not so much durable, but wear and tear doesnt show up as much on it. Spot fixes done and dry it got a quick drybrush to show that texture. Right side not done yet in this pic. I also widened the sandy parts a bit, as the goop hat eaten up its with.




Step 5b. Nice thing about drybrushing is that its dry right away. So I glued down very fine beach sand next. Actual beach sand, cause its cheap. Once dry it got a watered down PVA seeped trough to seal it all in.




Step 6. The wet one. The final thing I did today, gloss modge podge stippelend over the bits wot should be wet. I spend a good 15 minutes debating with my partner if tracing the coast line would add convincing wave pasterns, she won and I skipped that step.




So with that drying for the night again, I should also note that I've been making more bridges to cross those channels from before, intended to fit with my 6mm road network as seen here, (also note my much too wide older rivers). and a culvert entrance so I can have the channels start mid table. Printed and painted they turned out quite brill, but haven't had a chance to roll out the grass mat and take pics of them in use, so stay tuned for that as well. How relevant is that? Well obviously I'm going to make some modules for the rivers and channels to flow into the sea while I'm at this!

[Pattus Magnus]

Well, that’s inspiring! Building a good set of rivers, streams and coastline is something I plan to do at some undetermined point in the future. I’ll keep this thread in mind for reference material.

[YPU]

Well, that’s inspiring! Building a good set of rivers, streams and coastline is something I plan to do at some undetermined point in the future. I’ll keep this thread in mind for reference material.

Thanks you! And what is the point of this forum section if not to learn from other peoples mistakes, right? 

[6milPhil]

Great tutorial, also good to see some of your other terrain too.

[fred]

Those coast sections look good - I assume you could put two back to back to make a very wide river?

[YPU]

Great tutorial, also good to see some of your other terrain too.

Keep your eyes peeled, some of yours may pop up as well. 

Those coast sections look good - I assume you could put two back to back to make a very wide river?

The thought did cross my mind, but as mentioned I've already received critique that my old river is way to wide so I perish the thought. My counter argument always was that even in 1/300 it was still barely a quarter of the river I lived next to, with wise. I've since learned that us Dutch may not interpret the word "river" the same way most wargaming rules writers would. For example the stream going trough my childhood hometown is deep enough to hide a car year round, but considered a big creek, not worthy of the name river by most.



But I digress.


This morning the water has dried and now looks nice and wet. (don't think about it  ) 





Pretty chuffed with this shot, run it trough a filter and I could put it on instagram.


I quickly rolled out my greenery mat on a cupboard, so a bit wobbly and unstable but here are the bridges and the culvert I mentioned earlier.




And a quick snap of what the coast line looks like with 28mm figures.

[syrinx0]

You should be chuffed.  Looks lovely.

[Gunbird]

You've got some rad wet skills

[fred]

Good stuff.

They certainly work at different scales, and the bridges work well - nice to see bridges that fit with the roads.

[Pattus Magnus]

Just wondering about one detail: what material is the document folder made of? (Heavy paper? Plastic sheet?) In the early planning pictures it looks like heavy paper/ thin card. I love how the pieces sit flat on the table and I would like to achieve a similar effect, but I don’t want to grab the wrong stuff!

[YPU]

Cheers chaps, now comes the hard part, actually doing half a dozen of the modules and finishing them!

Just wondering about one detail: what material is the document folder made of? (Heavy paper? Plastic sheet?) In the early planning pictures it looks like heavy paper/ thin card. I love how the pieces sit flat on the table and I would like to achieve a similar effect, but I don’t want to grab the wrong stuff!

That's exactly why I went for the material. it has a bit of flex and generally a tendency to sit flat. It can still warp mind you. Its Polypropylene plastic, 0.45mm thick. I get em from Action for 80 cents each. Considering thats 2 sides a bit over a4 and 3 "flaps" that are about big enough to have some use, its dirt cheap crafting material wise. 

[Pattus Magnus]

Great, thanks for the information. I wouldn’t have thought of those for a source of hobby materials, but the pictures don’t lie!

[YPU]

Great, thanks for the information. I wouldn’t have thought of those for a source of hobby materials, but the pictures don’t lie!

It took me a while to find something that met my requirements. Ages ago I made this kind of terrain from roofing tar paper, which has a good heft and lies flat... but is unhealthy to handle and not fantastic to work with besides. I'm also lucky to have a partner who has been infected by my hobby/work mindset as well, and will frequently ask me if something could be usefull as hobby material.

[OSHIROmodels]

They look great 

I've been doing something similar myself with terrain boards regarding the half rivers but I've got a way to go.

[Freddy]

Great job on the rivers, I really like the idea of makong half rivers serving as coast in other games!

I've since learned that us Dutch may not interpret the word "river" the same way most wargaming rules writers would. For example the stream going trough my childhood hometown is deep enough to hide a car year round, but considered a big creek, not worthy of the name river by most.

In Hungary artificial water channels usually have only official naming or even just numbers despite they are criss-crossing the countryside, usually several meters wide, and in general much bigger than most of the natural creeks having a ,,real" name.