New Rivers, a wonderful gift

I received an incredible surprise the other day.  In response to a post I made here and on the Fife and Drum Miniature forum I received a new set of rivers for my table set up.  These were made by Bill Nevins who runs Kings Mountain miniatures.  Bill makes incredible terrain and the terrain of his bases for figures. Tgey are diorama like in quality.  Turns out Bill was working in making roads for one of his displays and took up this as a challenge.  Can I make something like this?

There are two sets of rivers.  The largest is 6" wide and about 12' long.  It includes a number of pie shaped pieces to add twists and turns.  There us also a section with a ford and another section with a smaller stream branching off from it.  Then there are. A number of smaller streams about 2" wide.  More then enough for any game.  

Basic canvas with chalk applied.

Then painted blue and gloss added.

The rivers were made from stretched canvas that artists use for painting on.  Acrylic caulk is then spread over the canvas and painted with acrylic gloss paint.  I asked for a very deep dark blue but you can use any color really.  Lastly it us given A couple of coats of gloss medium.  Smaller details like highlighting and a few dashes of white to represent waves add to the effect. The fords have small islands on them.  They are covered in a static grass.  

Most of the pieces layer out.

A big piece with a narrow stream branching off of it.

A wide and a narrow river ford.  

I like these very much and in the future will be seeing much use on my table.  they are a very flexible system which is just what I was looking for.  Bill mentioned that this system can also be used for making roads.  

Thank you Bill!

Crossing the River.

Get off my lawn