Like a Bridge Over Troubled Water

Hi all

following the finishing of my river sections and having been very pleased with the results the next step would be, naturally, how do we cross this?  Now I built two fords into the straight sections and they are fine, they can allow normal movement over a medium strength river that counts as difficult terrain and slows movement, or they can be treated as difficult terrain and slow movement over impassible terrain - Lovely stuff!  However nothing says river crossing or looks quite so iconic on a miniature battlefield as a bridge.  Yes bridges not only look the part but offer a strategic objective to battle over, a vital piece of the field that generals have been fighting and dying over for centuries.

So I needed a bridge, now I've struggled with these almost as long as I have with producing credible river sections.  Most of my efforts have looked out of place or improbable, with thin card struts not offering any strength to a structure or not fitting the type of games I play. I ended up with simple wooden planks across the sections which look ok for makeshift structures and not a lot else. What I needed was a generic looking bridge that looked realistic enough and fit most genres.

Looking at the materials I had available (I was not going to spend money on this project) I chose to make the bridge out of foamboard, cardboard and Filler (Spackle).

Cutting a basic humpback bridge shape for both sides out of foamboard, I glued them to a cardboard base.

I then mixed filler (premixed) with plenty of water I then "painted" the runny mixture onto the each part of the model seperately and left it to dry a little.  When it was a little damp I used a cocktail stick to carve flagstones into the filler.

When it was fully dry, I gave it a light sand.

Then I sprayed the whole thing with matt black car spray and drybrushed the whole thing with a mix of dark brown emulsion and the cookie dough emulsion I use for my Temple project.  I lightened this up until it was pure cookie dough.  Then covered it with a dark brown homemade wash.

I then mixed green flock with a green acrylic paint and PVA glue with a lot of water and use this to brush "moss" onto the underside of the bridge and the lower support, adding some lichen to represent climbing plants.

So there we have it, a river and bridge that i'm really pleased to add to my games table.

hope you enjoy

dGG