Friday 5 April 2013

The River Yonne



Ok, so I know that you prefer to see painted soldiers, but there's a couple of terrain orientated postings coming along!

After painting on three coats of acrylic varnish on the river sections I wasn’t happy with the finish I was getting – it didn’t have sufficient reflective shine to look like substantial flowing water. So I switched to painting on yacht varnish – which is always the recommended option from others who have made terrain. It has been brushed on as a thicker coat; it’s a brighter gloss finish and has darkened the colours a little to add some apparent depth. The trade-off is that it takes much longer to dry. Two coats of this have now been applied. The other unexpected benefit is that the varnish has made the original paint appear darker as well as added a green hue to it, which has enhanced the final colours to my mind.



I’ve also added a layer of Realistic Modelling Services ‘ripple maker’ to create some extra surface texture. I’ve brushed on using a cheap brush with rough bristles (as advised by Keith at RMS), which does leave a transparent but visible texture when it dries. I imagine that this product is similar to those made by ‘Woodland Scenics’ et al for modelling water, although I reckon that RMS one maybe better value. I Then painted over with a final coat of yacht varnish to get a gloss finish. 



The willow trees that are dotted along the edge have been purchased for these boards. They were handmade for me by Wee Tree Kings. The detail and finish is excellent, as was the service from Phil. Phil makes a range of different types of trees to order (which can be seen on his website) and I would strongly recommend, if you require some first-class trees or hedges.



The terrain tiles have been flocked with greenery provided by Realistic Modelling Services, over a thick layer of PVA mixed with a burnt umber acrylic paint to try to avoid any show-through to the basing materials underneath. I've given a light dry brush of Plaka ochre and Vallejo sand paint in uneven some patches to tone down the green and attempt to blend in with my other broads.  Tufts from RMS were finally glued - to both the boards and in the river as reeds - to add some detailing.



I'm happy with the finished tiles - the river consists of 2 double length boards and one single (plus a half size board for possible future games). These will stretch across the width of the Cravant game. A bridge is to come to complete the river Yonne.  

More soon.

12 comments:

saxon dog said...

Great work!

Fire at Will said...

Excellent work can't wait to see it for real at Salute

Ray Rousell said...

Looks excellent!!!!

fireymonkeyboy said...

Yep, looks really great!

GaryA said...

It's a convincing job. Nice effect.

Stephen said...

Works for me :-)

Phil said...

Excellent work on this river!
Phil.

Dalauppror said...

Splendig work !!!

Best regards Michael

Silver Whistle said...

Fantastic and the trees are the icing on the cake. Look forward to seeing that bridge.
Cheers,
Pat.

DHC Wargames said...

Looking great... I am in the process of building a few riverboards myself these days, so I,is good inspiration to take a look at yours.

Btw... I suffering from the same dilemma regarding a mill and a mill wheel myself. Unfortunately large scale cart wheels seem to be hard to get here in Germany! :-(

painterman said...

Many thanks for all the comments.
Please do say hello at Salute, if you're there. Great to put faces to avatars!

Silver whistle - I'm looking forward to seeing the bridge too (and hoping it fits)!
DHC - Pics of the finished mill along soon. Try an importer of Hobbys for wheels in Aus?

Simon.

DHC Wargames said...

Simon,

This week the worlds biggest modelling fair is in the next town. I will not have the time to go, but my father will (how good it must be to be retired) and I plan to have him looking for me.

If that does not work out, I plan to look online in either the UK or further away still. In addition to just looking useless, the ones I could findnhere in Germany were so expensive, that the shipping can end me up no worse!