Kawarau River Table project

If there is one thing I like more than painting and playing with Miniatures, it’s outdoor sports. I really like to be out there, discovering the world, hiking through dense forests, climbing mountain, canyoning and whitewater kayaking through wild rivers (not so wild I mean, I’m not really good at this actually). So when I could combine my passion for wargames with my passion for outdoor, it’s win-win!

I had this idea of making a battle table with a river in the middle but not any river. I wanted something which looks ice blue, almost like a canyon mountain river.

My Inspiration for this table: the Kawarau river in New Zealand (this specific spot was used to film the Lord of the Rings 1).

The table is made of 2 boards of 10 mm MDF and a pine frame. Each board is 120×90 cm (48×36″).

The left board is covered with cardboard in order to have a quite flat surface easy to play with but still keeping some relief with the road at a lower level.

The right board is at a much higher level. It’s mainly PS foam board (insulation board) carved into the river and the roads.

The junction between the two boards is made of two mdf strips cut a the exact topology of each board.

The whole surface of each board was covered with rendering in order to have a uniform surface.

The table was then painted with brown acrylic paint (I bought a 5L can of paint in my local DIY store).

A little bit of dry brushing and water washes with the woodland scenics colors.

Then Vinyl white glue was applied using a large brush and the static grass was poor on it. My advice: Vinyl white glue is much cheaper than PVA glue (wood glue) and as efficient for this kind of application.

The woodland scenics grass shaker are very good for covering large area with static grass.

I used several type of grass (static and turf) to give a more natural look to the table.

I painted the pine frame in dark gray to give a finished touch to the table.

Kibo