Sedan Chair Race ....

The annual sedan chair race between the two main carriers in Wittenberg city is due to start; the winner gets first place at the pick up points for the lucrative trade to and from the palace

The race starts at the Unicorn on Helmholtz Strasse, goes along then left through an alleyway into Lowen Platz (Lion Square), round the back of the lion statue to the next street, turning right by the Cauldron and down Konig Strasse finishing at the Golden Pretzel (on the edge of the market square)

At the start ...nearly ready to go .... under starts orders ....

Crowds are gathering at the finish...

They are off ! green gets a good start ....

red cuts inside and get to the alley first... blocking green

red is through the alley into Lowen Platz..

red slow down and then drop the sedan, green however are on fine form and overtake red ...

now it is green who tire a bit and red catches up as they near the Cauldron...

The crowd waiting at the finish line by the Golden Pretzel can just see the lead sedan chair turning into Konig Strasse

As red turns into Konig Strasse, green starts to lag behind...

Red starts to draw ahead as they head down Konig Strasse

Green try and keep up with them ....

As they near the finish line green is on the tail of red....(due to one lucky movement mulligan for green)

with a final burst of speed green passes the finish line first just ahead of red...

The green sedan chair company is the winner !

There was much drinking and jollity afterwards in the Golden Pretzel .....

---oXo---

Sedan Race Rules:

Initiative: 1d6 per side, highest moves first

Movement Distance : 1D6 + 1D3 inches

Movement Mulligan (second chance); if score is double one on movement distance, throw again 

Movement Penalties:

• for turning a corner, movement penalty - 2 inches

Risk Factor - for each movement throw a 1D6

• 1: dropped/grounded the sedan chair, movement penalty - 3 inches
• 2: stumbled, movement penalty - 2 inches
• 3: slipped, movement penalty - 1 inches
• 4,5,6: OK

Wooden Bridge ...

 I wanted an alternative bridge for my wide river sections, I decided on a wooden bridge.  I used the wooden bridge (resin one FIW21 from Ironclad Miniatures), the ramps and midstream support have been married up with an old bridge deck that I had made from cardboard and parts form an Airfix bailey bridge.

painted and ready for use ...

(the bridge deck resin castings that came with the Ironclad Miniatures bridge have been put aside to be made into a low jetty for my harbour setups)

Civilians - Ratnik Miniatures

Ready to join the populace of Wittenberg , civilians from Ratnik Miniatures; lovely figures and a pleasure to paint..

A Blue Rinse for the River sections ....

My main set of river sections ... a bit too brown ? well sort of but they work as rivers.

Rather than start again with a new scheme I decided to give these a blue wash like the stream sections; I mixed up a turqouisey/blue wash mixed with some varnish, applied liberally to each section ...

all done and laid out to dry...

after application of a couple more coats of clear gloss varnish ... now not so brown as originally; I'm happy with the new look

and from lower down the reflectivity I wanted...

all still on the water front 😎

On Murky Pond ....

While on watery scenic features I had a look at my small pond/lakes etc...

Looking rather tired, the varnish had rather lost its gloss finish; so to chivvy them up I used some Woodland Scenics Realistic Water (left over from making some paddy fields, see here) . Its runny stuff and takes 24hrs or so to set,  great though and its looks very good ...

Tinkering with streams ...

After working on my wide river sections, I re-visited my stream sections. These comprise 'Battlefield in a Box' items and one home-made section, which have been painted & varnished. They have a 'light brownish' look - I wanted to give them a tinge of blue and perhaps a bit more reflectivity.

To add the tinge of blue I mixed some mid-blue paint with some gloss varnish, trial item on the left 

Looks better, so I did the rest of the sections with my blue-mix varnish, followed by another coat of clear gloss varnish, 

that'll do 😀 🐍

Enhancing my large river sections ...

Still wading through rivers...

I decided to sort out my large river sections before re-visiting colours and finish of the medium width river sections (and streams). The large river sections were made with acrylic sheet and sprayed on one side for effect; the top side is very reflective and I needed to reduce this somehow.

I thought about using some plastic effect sheets suitably painted stuck on top of the old sections.  There are some nice ones

• Busch BUS7180 water effect with ripples (clear plastic)  
• Faller 170791 Lake Sheet (clear plastic) 
• Amera P109 Water effect sheet (white plastic). http://www.amera.co.uk 

Alright for a small area or pond, but not suited to my needs. After a bit of thought I remembered my friend had used clear plastic shower curtain over blue fabric for a river ... very effective. 

As an alternative to using a shower curtain, I thought of scrunching up the clear plastic from some cheap A4 Pockets (you can get A3 pockets too ). I tried one out ... 

I liked the effect and set about covering the rest of the sections ....

I'm well pleased with the end result :)

Rivers Sections - making a couple of wiggles...

One thing missing from my river sections are some wiggles or bendy sections. ...

First up was to check on what I had already... enough to get me halfway across the gaming table...

I worked out that a couple of 12" sections would be enough for most game scenarios to go straight across the gaming table or across the table at about 45 degrees...; bases cut out of mdf and a piece of plastic packaging cut to stick on the top to give me a smooth finish to paint on...

the two new sections then have river banks added using cork tile with some wood filler to fill in any gaps..

painted up to match my existing sections, with 5 coats of gloss varnish...;  setup across the table - result

What colour is water ?  Blue/green or grey or brown (and reflective) .....I've gone for a brown river bed and low clear water. It's too brown ?   I'm trying to find the right colour and way to apply it - at least I have all the sections I need for games - any change can be applied to all.   [It doesn't help my extra wide home-made river sections are a very reflective blue, these will have to match as well  😕 ]

The abandoned town... The Action ....

 Continued from the previous post ....

---oXo---

Scharfe and his jagers approached cautiously reaching the edge of the town square...

Attracted by the smells from the bandits cooking, the hungry wolves bound across the square ....

The bandits are beset by the wolfs...

the bandits by the square are just about holding off the wolves....

Scharfe watches the events unfolding in the square ...

The bandits just manage to beat off the wolves (in the process losing a couple of men)....

As the last of the wolves runs away, the bandits see Scharfe and the jagers on the other side of the square 

The jagers open fire ....

and move into the square; the shooting continues...

The bandits come off badly and beat a hasty retreat out of the square ....

and then out of the town ....

and make a break for the forest as the jagers cautiously follow up ....

The jagers head towards the forest,  a couple of the bandits fire at them as they approach ...

The jagers lose sight of the bandits in the forest ....

It looks like Red Jack and his bandits are starting to get away ....

Esme circling round spots them and shouts down to Scharfe where they are ..., the jagers rush forward ...

After a brisk fight in a small clearing, Red Jack and two of his men are surrounded and taken captive ..

Scharfe and his men have captured Red Jack ....