I assumed – wrongly as it turned out – that there would be a large number of 'how to model a marsh' articles on the Internet or videos on YouTube, but when I looked there were very few, and most of those involved quite detailed modelling processes whilst what I wanted was something quick, easy, and relatively cheap.
The first thing I did was to indicate the wet part of the marsh with a wash made from approximately 50% Medium Grey and 50% Burnt Sienna acrylic paint mixed with water (and a small drop of washing-up liquid to break the surface tension) until it was the consistency of ink. This wash was then dripped into the lower areas of the marsh using a plastic syringe thus ...
... and allowed to dry overnight.
It is interesting to note that in one place the wash overflowed the edge of the marsh and found its own level. Rather than treat this as a disaster, I allowed the wash to dry and accepted that this method had actually found the sort of area on the baseboard that the liquid part of the marsh would have inundated.
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Bob -
ReplyDeleteI don't know if this would be any help. I once saw a railway set-up that foregrounded a tract of swamp. I noticed that the water was green, shading into deeper colour the farther from the edge. Then it had been varnished over the top , probably several coats. It gave a fine impression of depth. I have tried much the same thing with my larger rivers, with indifferent success. I used a gloss brown varnish over the blue, but these days I would prefer shades of brown or dark green for my rivers or marshes.
Cheers,
Ion
Archduke Piccolo (Ion),
DeleteThanks for the very useful suggestion. I’ve based the look of my marsh on photos of the one it’s supposed to represent, which seems to be a combination of salt and freshwater marshland. The soil there is almost universally a damp-looking dark brown, which is what I’ve tried to recreate.
All the best,
Bob
As you say, loads of videos if you want something very detailed, but not much for 'normal' wargames needs. I keep my stuff simple purely for speed, playability and the fact that I can store it easily, without worrying about it all getting damaged!
ReplyDeleteSteve J.,
DeleteMush of what I saw on video was also a bit too delicate for average wargame use, and like your terrain, mine is going to be a bit more robust.
All the best,
Bob