Sunday, May 13, 2012

Making River Tiles

Battle 2 of our 1809 campaign uses a terrain layout that requires 2 different rivers on table.  This means that I have to build 2 new river terrain tiles for the game set up.   A good time to summarize the build process!

I use 1.5" wide rivers at the edge.  Measure from each corner so that the river edges line up evenly.  I use a pencil to sketch out the general river course and then score along that sketched line with the utility knife.  Starting at an edge, slowly bend the tile at the scored line...then go to the other edge and start there.  After a few bends, it will snap off cleanly.   Do the other side of the river line similarly.

You now have the two top edges of the tile.   Apply a bead of superglue irregularly around the bottom of the top pieces and place on the full bottom tile, aligning on the corner - using your fingers around the corners to make sure they line up.

There you go - you now have the basic river tile.   Next up is applying texture to the river.   More later.



2 comments:

  1. You know, just looking at the way you have done these is inspiring me to make some terrain tiles of my own. I imagine they store easily, and transport easily as well, being essentially flat 12"x12" squares.

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  2. I used to use a hex based system - think homemade GeoHex and you'd have it. I used 5/8" thick particle board for the material. Took forever to cut out (power mitrebox) and even then there were a ton of gaps. The storage to store the hexes was (is - I'm about to throw them away) around 4 large containers (18"x24"x20"). I have virtually all the terrain I need with the tile squares, and it takes maybe 1/4 of that storage space. The BIG advantage is that I don't have to make the base piece - I don't have to cut out hexes for new pieces...just pull out a tile and I'm ready to roll.

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