 Extra Crispy  | 08 Jun 2015 11:21 a.m. PST |
I need to make some marsh – not swamp, but boggy, marshy ground. This would be for a grand tactical game where 1" = 50 or 100 yards. I'm looking for tips, inspiration, tutorials… |
| olicana | 08 Jun 2015 11:48 a.m. PST |
Hi EC, Think patchy. Think multi useful.
This was used to do a big stretch. Small bits in strips. Based on 2mm MDF or 4mm Ply, banks for pools done with Miliput / putty. The rest was just my sand and grit 'figure basing' technique. Tufts are broom bristle hot glued to pennies. Very useful. Very versatile. Same bits used for a 'boggy shallow valley depression' at Zorndorf.
Same battle with bigger pools.
I've found tufts on pennies VERY useful. Fill for everything bits. Cheap, easy……
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dragon6  | 08 Jun 2015 1:06 p.m. PST |
I'm in love… olicana your table is beautiful. It's exactly what mine looks like… in my head anyway. Objectively not so much  |
| Steve | 08 Jun 2015 1:21 p.m. PST |
You could use Wargamers Terrain as inspiration: link |
| normsmith | 08 Jun 2015 2:55 p.m. PST |
Here is my marsh / bog / morass Third image down, just click on the image for a bigger view. For your purposes I would just used more filler and less water. Link – link |
| Ben Lacy | 08 Jun 2015 4:59 p.m. PST |
PDF link This AAR shows how my wife created the marsh by the Merderet River. It is actually artist canvas that she painted blue and flocked. |
| Crucible Orc | 08 Jun 2015 7:27 p.m. PST |
for a more boggy type of swamp/marsh i'd go with something similar to olicana but make teh earth colour very dark. I'd probably do a few larger bases(8"x12"-ish) and several smaller bases like olicana has. |
 Doctor X | 08 Jun 2015 11:30 p.m. PST |
Good looking stuff gentleman! I would like to find a way to make this without the raised banks on the sides. Those remind me more of rice paddies than swamps/marsh/bog. I use Geohex so I suppose I could dig into the hex slightly. Anyone ever tried that? |
| Martin Rapier | 09 Jun 2015 1:57 a.m. PST |
It is virtually impossible to make decent looking water/swamp features without raised edges, part of the illusion is having a distinct lip between the earth and 'water'. You can disguise them with foliage etc of course, but a thin layer of sand or whatever isn't actually that thick. |
| Mad Guru | 09 Jun 2015 2:44 a.m. PST |
I've been building a marshland/swamp terrain board for the past few months. It's not quite finished yet but getting very close, and the ground scale for the scenario I'm building it for happens to be 1"=50 yards. RE: raised banks/lips/edges… I use 2" thick insulation foam for my terrain boards, so I used 2 pieces of 1" thick foam for this board, same as for my river boards. The bottom 1" piece remains intact while I cut the outline of the marsh/swamp out of the upper 1" thick piece. I glued the top piece onto the bottom piece, then went to work making the surface of the top match the ground-cover on my other terrain-boards and filling up the visible surface of the bottom piece with a ton of reeds/swamp-grass. When that process is complete -- hopefully in another day or two -- I will reach the final step of prepping liquid resin, adding a mix of drab green acrylic ink, and pouring it into the reed-filled basin. Here's a few pics in its current WIP state…
Here's a sample test of the resin…
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| LesCM19 | 09 Jun 2015 2:46 a.m. PST |
How about shaped cut out acetate painted browny green on the underside, flock and reeds around the edges and onto the top a little, that wouldn't give a very high bank, only the height of the acetate plus layer of flock. If the edges warp upwards maybe a strip of duct tape underneath to stop the curl? Pretty much like Olicana's bigger pools on reflection. |
| Extra Crispy | 09 Jun 2015 5:26 a.m. PST |
I think I'll try cutting shapes out of this, slightly flexible material, then adding the barest lip to hold a very, very thin layer of water effect. I'll see what I can come up with. Thanks for the ideas & eye candy. I also like the pennies with reeds idea – I've got a big bag of wooden circular bases that would be perfect for fill in but I'd like to keep the shapes more irregular… |
| Mad Guru | 09 Jun 2015 8:53 a.m. PST |
If you'd prefer to use irregular shapes to base your reeds, you can use scissors to cut them out of old credit-cards or similar cards, or go to the hobby store and buy a thin sheet of styrene plastic, such as made by Evergreen or Plastruct. |
| chironex | 12 Jun 2015 9:35 p.m. PST |
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| John Treadaway | 13 Jun 2015 9:02 a.m. PST |
Heki plastic water sheet:
Ignore the purple 'flim flam' on the last pic for the 'grav' effect (added in post production, as they say) but what it shows is the fish tank plant reeds around the marsh/water stuff. This is the heki plastic laid over green/blue painted plastic (styrene 3mm) sheet with an edge added. The sheets were glued together around the periphery using a hot glue gun and then brown tile grouting and sand was used to dress the edges. It's a great product and very robust for wargaming uses. John T |
