"Who makes the best miniature rivers?" Topic

The title about says it all; any scale.

Hotz makes nice affordable felt rivers. I'm happy with the way they look. When you order them expect to wait 3 months for them to arrive.

Depends what you mean by best.

I have roads and rivers from Wargamers Terrain – love them.

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Steve

The Battlefront rivers are excellent and a good price

Have Rivers and Roads from Wargamers Terrain – great product!

JR Miniatures have excellent pre-painted rivers.

Pegasus makes cheap rivers.

I like the Miniature Worldmaker stuff.

I was looking for decent wide rivers (6"-9" for preference) recently. S&A scenics make quite good wide rivers which our club have just acquired: scenics.co.uk . However the best I have seen were from Last Valley Scenics who have a web store – auction – I saw some of their river pieces at Carronade and only refrained from getting them because they would not be easy to transport to the club.

Mine are from Battlefield Terrain Concepts. They look great.

All my friends that made them out of indoor/outdoor carpet strips.

Miniature World Maker

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Rivers in 1", 2" and 4" wide sections, turns, bends and the way the make the water looks great.

I've got 10' of the 2" rivers, never had any of the paint come off over years of use.

I have a ton of the Wizard Kraft rivers, and have been very pleased with them. Highly recommended if you like blue rivers.

I see they *finally* updated their site with some pictures, too:

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I wouldn't have the hubris to call them "the best", but we offer what we consider to be some very nice rivers over at BATTLESCAPES TERRAIN.

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Bart and Danielle

I used the TSC ones for years. Nice but not flexible. I have also had a few sets of the Wizard Kraft rivers and they are first rate.
VR
James Mattes

You do, mate. Buy up a supply of a suitable basing material, some flexible rubbery material you can get a Michaels/Hobby Lobby type store – and get some paint and cheap brushes while there, maybe some acrylic gloss medium. Then zip by the hardware store on the way home and pick up some tubes of clear silicone and – if you don't have one already – a gun for squeezing the stuff out of the tube. And get to work. Make rivers to fit you specific needs.

Ranger 322, those rivers do look nice. Do you mind telling us what you use for the water if it's not a trade secret?

Early morning writer, I'd considered that, but I have no idea what a "suitable basing material" is. Can you give some name brands? I don't even know what section to look it.

Optional Field, we use multiple layers of Polyurethane for our rivers. When carefully applied, the results are exellent…if not, it can ruin all your hard work.

Thanks for the compliment!

Bart and Danielle
BATTLESCAPES TERRAIN

*excellent*…

optional field, sorry, no brand names, but if you go to the section of a Michael's store where they sell the squares of felt (about 1' x 1') you should also find some sheets of a rubbery like product – or maybe more like an artificial foam (small bubbles in the interior). I recommend finding the largest sheet you can, and use that for the base. Or you can do what I will be doing – more expensive, though – and use a high quality plywood cut to shape, modularity matters here, with some reinforcing pieces on either side that will be hidden under terrain (prevent warping) and then use either a good hobby water product (recommend the odorless and non-toxic varieties, the oft-recommended ones are dangerous to use) or layers of paint and tinted acrylic gloss medium. That last is my medium of choice for water and is highly effective and has one excellent benefit: after a careful dusting, a layer of clear added on to an old piece brings it back to like new. Also, cheaper than any other way I've looked into. But heavier and less portable and not flexible.

I use both felt and Miniature World Maker