Sunday 6 December 2020

Swamps

The majority actions of the Great Paraguayan War were fought along the Paraná, Uruguay and Paraguay Rivers and significant parts of those waterways were surrounded by a web of swamps and marshes. Now long term I plan to make terrain tiles that incorporate swampy areas, but my terrain tile project is on hold until I can sort out storage in the garage, and that is dependent on constructing some storage in the garden for the garden tools and lawnmower and that is dependent on replacing the back fence and that can’t be done until the anti-bird nets are removed from the blueberries...and that won’t happen until at late-February, probably into March. So I needed to make some swamps that will sit on top of the table and I undertook to make a trial piece.

Like my woods pieces I want these swamps to be muti-purpose - able to be used in many theatres - with interchangeable pieces, some with palm trees and some with other types of vegetation and with the interchangeable pieces held in place by magnets. Again I chose to use 3mm MDF to make the first trial piece from and I clamped two 240mm squares and cut out the basic shape. Then from the top piece I cut out the swamp areas, leaving the outer edge as a sort of bank and leaving a few “islands”. Then I cut out the inserts and glued the top layer to the base


When the glue was set I took a rasp to the outer edges to bevel them and the coated the whole area that was not going to represent water with coarse sand and then pointed it various tones of brown and green and added a number of twigs as fallen logs. Then the water effect was added, followed by grass tufts and   clumped foliage. Then the interchangeable pieces were made.

And the final result...

As a subtropical swamp...




...with one of the interchangeable pieces swapped out...



...and as a non-subtropical swamp, minus the palm trees and shot on a sunnier day, maybe in the Mississippi Bayou, or the Carolina coast for the American Civil War, War of 1812 or the Revolution.




I am really pleased with the way the trial peice came out and there will be two more pieces like this that will link together or will be able to be used independent of each other.









18 comments:

  1. Lovely job, nicely visual and more convenient for storage.

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    1. Thanks Norm. These multi-purpose pieces are becoming a must as storage space begins to be restricted...the amount of space taken up by a mere 24 trees is surprising.

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  2. Handsome swamp Mark, well done...and lovely water effect!

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    1. Thanks Phil. The next batch of pieces are sketched up for cutting in a week or two.

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  3. That's really very effective Mark and nice to be able to use it across several theatres by swapping some pieces around.

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    1. Thanks Steve. I am starting to think up a number of ACW scenarios up and down the Confederate East and Gulf coast states.

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  4. Oh, this is really a fine piece of swampland, Mark. Your ability to turn a terrain idea into reality is unparalleled. This piece will be useful across a number of periods and theaters.

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    1. Thank you Jonathan. This was an interesting piece to make and I learned quite a bit making it - one of which is that if I set the jigsaw at 45 degrees I can save myself a significant amount of time beveling the edges with a rasp!

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  5. Great work as always Mark. Marshy areas can be useful in most theatres and eras so I am sure these will get a lot of use!

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  6. Really well done Mark. Storage is always a premium and terrain items are the worst offender. The back fence doesn't sound like it will be an inexpensive exercise unfortunately.

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    1. I need to get inventive with storage now and trees take up a lot of space. The fence won’t be too bad really. The post are all sound so it is just the horizontals and the palings. It just needs to be done before the end of summer...and after I have disassembled the netting to keep the birds off the blueberries.

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  7. Good lookin', clever use of swappable elements.

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    1. Thanks. The next step is to make the other pieces so that they interlock.

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  8. Very nice indeed Mark...
    The none subtropical looks a lot like my garden...

    All the best. Aly

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    1. Thanks Aly. Our garden is drying out alarmingly quickly with a bit of heat and lots of wind.

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  9. Those are fantastic looking terrain pieces Mark!

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    1. Thanks Mark. I am hoping to get the other pieces made over the next few weeks.

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