Puddle, mire or just a lake
2011-06-19
Share the linkA swamp and its family and relations are rarely seen and that is a pity as they offers interesting strategic challenges. Seem to favour static armies with a lot of guns where in fact it can also become a deadly trap if the enemy manages to outflank you?
Swampy pond
A mire cannot be tiny. Otherwise it will be just a dirty spot on your gaming table. The right diameter is about 12 inches.
- Start by creating a www.wargaminghobby.com/article/terrain-bases-20.html (base) of the right size. Watch out for the cardboard warping syndrome!
- Put a layer of plaster-like putty (filler, spackle or whatever it is called in your country) around the edges of the pond. The layer must not be to high — just a couple of millimetres to mark the edges
- Fill the pond with water following my guidance on how to make realistic water
- A swamp has to include several treacherous patches of grass and semi-stable muddy ground. Draw their edges with a marker going for natural, rounded blobs
- Paint all those non-watery areas with thinned plaster or filler to matt them
- When the areas are dry, paint them green
- Cover the non-watery areas with static grass and make it dirty with earth-coloured paints
- If you really need to you may glue some brush bristles as reeds. It looks great but I don?t recommend it as the bristles will break easily in transport and will make moving units cumbersome
See the pictures as separate pages: Swampy pond 
Unpainted swamp
