"Step-by-step stream construction" Topic

Here's my latest stream construction for a Napoleonic Ligny scenario I'm working on. I'm pleased with how the water turned out and how easy the material was to work with.

link

Looks really great!

Thanks for sharing your techniques.

What material are you using for the stream bases?

Really good work there! Nice SBS, too.

That's a really nice tutorial for great looking streams.

I like the technique except for the base. The river ends up so thick – a problem I have not quite solved myself.

Battlefield Terrain Concepts makes similar rivers (I own a shedload) and uses some sort of black plastic as a base. It keeps the profile of the river much lower.

For very small scale rivers, I did something similar but just used cloth as the base.

I will definitely pick up a jar of that clear coat stuff though. Great find!

I say it looks to be well worth the money and effort.

Thanks for the tip. I will try it.

Mako -- the base is pink insulation foam cut with a spoon shaped attachment to my hot wire cutter. The foam is 1/8" thick, I think. I just carefully scoop out a middle section for the stream.

Crispy – I hear you on the "elevated" stream look. It's why I tried to use so much foliage to help hide the fact a bit. One thing I tried with other materials was to lay down the stream bed (sand/pebble mix) on parchment paper, pour the water, then use some foliage to act as a dam to keep it from all running off. When dry, peel it off the paper. This worked pretty well with Modg-Podge, but I found that after some time, it becomes brittle and breaks fairly easily with no support. I intend to try a similar technique with this glazing to see how it holds up, but for this project, I went with the base.

Looks awesome, great work!

One thing I learned about Mod Podge, is that is works better from a durability standpoint if it's used in a recessed, permanent channel, like on a modular terrain board. I used it this way for modular boards, applying it to painted MDF and two years later it's solid as a rock. I also put a coat of gloss varnish over it when I made my rivers.

Thanks for the answer.

I thought that might be the case, but wasn't sure.

Raised streams are a concern, though less so when looking top down on them.

I'm considering trying thin sheet styrense as a base, e.g. 1mm, 1.5mm, or 2mm thick.

There's still the issue of creating the banks though, to contain the "water", and so it isn't perfectly flat, so even more unrealistic looking.

I think these techniques are the best option other than purpose-built, fixed-piece terrain, where you can sink the rivers and streams into the "ground" properly.

Yes, either your streams/rivers go up or the boards go down! I also wanted this project to be as flexible as possible -- I needed the 8' or so of stream for this scenario, but also wanted to be able to reuse them as needed. I made something like 8 turns (each about 60 degrees) and then two short straight pieces of 4" then 1 each of the longer ones in gradually increasing lengths.

Looks really good, thanks for posting. Will look for that Americana triple thick gloss coat.