ScottWashburn | 22 Feb 2009 10:43 a.m. PST |
Since ancient times armies have needed a way to build temporary bridges. By the 18th and 19th centuries the method for doing so had become fairly standardized: a series of small boats linked together with beams and a roadway laid on top. PaperTerrain now offers an easy and inexpensive way to add bridges like this to your wargame table. The 10/12mm scale kit includes 15 pontoon boats and 28" of roadway. The boats measure 2 1/4" x 1/2" and the roadway is 1 1/8" wide, The 15mm scale kit includes 12 pontoon boats and 25" of roadway. The boats are 3" x 5/8" and the roadway is 1 1/2" wide. The 20mm scale kit includes 9 pontoon boats and 30" of roadway. The boats are 4" x 7/8" and the roadway is 2" wide. The 25/28mm scale kit includes 9 pontoon boats and 40" of roadway. The boats are 5" x 1" and the roadway is 2 5/8" wide. The kit comes unassembled and does not include landscaping or miniature figures. Check it out at PaperTerrain! paperterrain.com picture
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avidgamer | 22 Feb 2009 10:46 a.m. PST |
Hey that's a pretty cool idea! Nice. |
Footslogger | 22 Feb 2009 10:51 a.m. PST |
Nicely in time for Aspern-Essling and Wagram anniversary refights. |
John the OFM | 22 Feb 2009 10:53 a.m. PST |
Scott, you have a genius for making things we never knew we needed before. Looks good! "General Burnsides? Fredericksburg is a GO!" |
tmy 1939 | 22 Feb 2009 12:21 p.m. PST |
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voltigeur | 22 Feb 2009 1:57 p.m. PST |
I concur, very nice work. Now how about a nice 15mm Bailey bridge? :-) |
Der Alte Fritz | 23 Feb 2009 8:27 a.m. PST |
Wow, now I can fight all of those Charles Grant scenarios that involve river crossings. What a great idea, and what nice looking pontoons and kit. |
Regulars | 23 Feb 2009 1:14 p.m. PST |
Scott, Thanks, They look great and I'm picking up several in 10mm and 15mm. Cheers, Joel in Northern Va. |
donlowry | 23 Feb 2009 1:49 p.m. PST |
A badly needed item. I hope you do them for 6mm as well. However, will the paper boats and roadway support the weight of metal miniatures? |
ScottWashburn | 23 Feb 2009 3:03 p.m. PST |
Don, There are several different methods you can use to build these (all detailed in the instructions). If you are going to place metal miniatures on them then I suggest reinforcing the roadway and supports with a layer of cardboard. It's easy to do and will make the bridge plenty strong. The boats, themselves, are two layers of cardstock (inside and outside of the boat) and when glued togther makes them very strong without any additional reinforcement. I just plunked down 36 28mm metal minatures on the 15mm bridge shown in the photos without any problem whatever. Oh, and 6mm will be coming soon. |
Thomas Nissvik | 24 Feb 2009 12:42 a.m. PST |
Scott said:"Oh, and 6mm will be coming soon." So, me being new to ACW, can anyone suggest a scenario where I could use one of these bridges? I want to buy one just for the fun of building it, but it would of course be better to use it on the field of battle as well. |
AGamer | 24 Feb 2009 10:02 a.m. PST |
Thomas – two come to mind. I am at work, so details are from memory (or lack thereof). Fredericksburg 1862 – Engineers building a pontoon are brought under fire by Barksdale's Mississippi brigade, who are located in the town. The Union launches an assualt across the river using pontoon boats – with the bridges half built. Seven Pines 1862 – Portions of Sumner's US Corp charge over pontoons spanning a rain swollen river (the Rapidan?) as reinforcements, blunting J.E. Johnston's attack. J.E.J is wounded during the action and replaced by R.E. Lee. |
donlowry | 24 Feb 2009 3:47 p.m. PST |
Or Fredericksburg 1863 -- part of the Chancellorsville campaign. For a skirmish action, you could do the Union cavalry destroying Lee's pontoon bridge over the Potomac at Falling Waters while Lee was retreating from Gettysburg. (Actually, the bridge was not in place at the time, as the Confederates frequently dismantled it to save it from attack -- but the Federals sent a couple of swimmers to steal one of the boats and used it to ferry enough troops across to the Va. side to attack and destroy the dismantled bridge.) |
Thomas Nissvik | 04 Mar 2009 12:31 a.m. PST |
This is kind of fun:I have just started looking at ACW after stumbling on Colonel von Vegesack, a Swede who commanded 20th NY at Antietam. I bought Crokers novel "To Make Men Free" to get an idea about the campaign leading up to Antietam. I finished that on the 25th, just after reading Freds suggestion for Fredericksburg above. At the end of that book is a teaser for the next one, "No Greater Courage" about Fredericksburg. The first characters to show up in that book is a captain in charge of a pontoon bridge! The book has been ordered, plans are being made for buying and painting minis and now Scott has announced that the pontoon kit is out in 6mm. Sometimes it is obvious that God wants us to wargame! |
donlowry | 04 Mar 2009 10:18 p.m. PST |
But didn't Einstein say that God does not roll dice? |
Thomas Nissvik | 05 Mar 2009 12:31 a.m. PST |
Would that mean that God only plays Diplomacy? I assume that God does not play games, he only Umpires them. |