Allowing terrain to be included in last winter’s painting challenge afforded me the opportunity me to tick off a few pieces that I had earmarked for construction later this year.  For as long as I can remember I have wanted a viable river system for my tables and had been looking at various options.  In the end I followed the very creative Andy, of ‚Da Gobbo’s Grotto‘ and plumped for the ‚Amera Plastics‘ sections.

Working initially with a couple of curves and straight lengths, these are relatively inexpensive vacuum formed plastic sheets, but take all the guesswork out of making rivers that link together.  I decided to give mine a little more weight and having trimmed the edges they were glued to some 2mm MDF sheets.  I used sandpaper to make the smooth plastic surface a little rough and then added some sand and small stones mixed with a generous amount of PVA.  Having set aside to dry they were simply undercoated in black and then painted as normal.  I like my rives to be blue and so used a dark Prussian blue, lightening to the edges.  Once all was completed the pieces were varnished and dressed with static grass and tufts. 

Inevitably it was all going to come down to the next phase, the water. I had had some luck with Poundland epoxy resin and had initially thought that was going to be the way to go with this project, but stumbled across an alternative – clear silicone sealant. To say that I was a little anxious about the application would be an understatement, especially given the time that had already gone into the project, but all seemed to go well. Working in small batches, I simply squeezed out the silicone and then spread it around with a lolly stick. Water helps to push the incredibly sticky substance around, but be warned it is difficult to tame. If you are after a still millpond effect then this isn’t for you, it is more babbling brook, which I happen to feel looks rather effective.

Having completed the river, I was reminded that I had picked up was once an Italri stone bridge in the ‚Warlord Games‘ half price plastic sprue sale.  Simple enough to glue together, but once I had slapped some grey paint on it, I was left feeling a tad underwhelmed with an incredibly clean bridge.  A bit of weathering was called for and with the addition of some pumice gel and static grass I was able to create something that fitted more readily with the completed river sections.