Napoleonic & ECW wargaming, with a load of old Hooptedoodle on this & that


Wednesday 23 March 2016

Back to the River

I've now painted up my demo pieces for the rivers/waterways, and am rather pleased with the results.


I chose a compromise colour - as mentioned previously, I wish to use these hex tiles mostly as sensible, battlefield-type rivers, but deeper areas such as lakes and coastlines are also within scope. I experimented with various varnish finishes (another compromise - this time between perfection and my natural laziness). I decided that the water will mostly be visible in wiggly, 2-inch wide strips, and even a lake should not be like glass, so I opted for 2 thick coats of gloss varnish, I didn't rub down between coats, and the resulting brush-stroked, imperfect shine has a passable look of a current, or the wind, or something - anyway, it'll do!


I used clear gloss Ronseal varnish, because it is cheap and should be tough enough to avoid flaking. Though it is water-based, it is still fairly nasty sticky stuff when cleaning brushes, but it's readily available and goes on easily.

Even with just the three basic bank shapes I have available to date (there will be one or more junction pieces in due course, and maybe a couple of small islands), it is possible to play around and create a number of interesting shapes. I hope to get more river pieces to paint up in the next week or so. They store compactly and neatly, too, so I'm pleased. This could go viral - by next Christmas you could be the only kid in your gang that isn't playing at rivers

I still have to arrange for a couple of fords (just water tiles which show some colour variation, I think). And, of course, now I have established a system, I can give some thought to an alternative river colour for the other side of the water tiles...!


For no real reason, other than the fact that I like it, here's a loosely-linked music clip. I got a bit distracted, wondering whether David Byrne's suit would remain stationary if he spun round on the spot, but I guess not. It is nice for us Wallace and Gromit fans to see a pair of tribute Wrong Trousers, though, and any Al Green song is usually worth a listen.




10 comments:

  1. That exercise turned out very well!
    Nice craftsmanship!

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    1. Thank you Jonathan - I've a lot of work to do, but I understand what it is now!

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  2. Logical, almost clinical in approach and very well executed. Not at all the sort of thing I'd do, so it'll probably be very successful!

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    1. Well, it only makes sense in my Twilight World of Hexes anyway, but once you have hexes everything becomes mathematics anyway, so a lot of the stuff just flows along without many choices.

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  3. Those look very impressive. I think I might have to look into some of those once funds allow. They would certainly make building trench systems a lot easier.

    Speaking of riversides, I came across this lady a couple of months ago and she is just extraordinary. Probably old hat to you, but worth a look.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xzr_GBa8qk

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    1. The pieces for the new hex-oriented trenches exist only as prototypes at the moment, but they are coming along.

      Sister Rosetta was very special - my favourite clip of her is

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SR2gR6SZC2M

      - the whole idea of that large lady, dressed in a coat she obviously borrowed from the Queen Mother's wardrobe, playing a white Gibson SG is remarkable.

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  4. Some very high-class hex-based hydrography you've got there, Foy.

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    1. It's long overdue - I've been aware for some decades (yes, I think that's right) that my battlefields are a disgrace, and now the laser-cut MDF world has caught up with what I always needed.

      The amount of technology which goes into my simple, understated, Old School scenery is frightening. Morschauser would probably approve, though.

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  5. Nicely done! Esp the bit where the banks on the various pieces actually meet up where they join.

    Interesting challange picking an alternate colour. Ever since I moved to the banks of a tidal river I've harbored an urge to have wargame river that comes or goes during a game. "Your flank is secured by a mudflat" ...."oh look the river just came in. Is that a flotilla of boats coming?".

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  6. I like those river sections Tony, but I must say that the hills in the previous post (I wasn't keeping up!), are very clever indeed, could be a solution for the many hex based games, I would certainly use them if I returned to C&C. I recall spending hours cutting mine from 12mm board with a jigsaw!

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