Having finished off the French buildings and in a bit of a terrain groove, I decided to finish off a bridge I'd had basecoated for ages. All told it only took about an hour to finish, but longer given the time taken for the glue to dry for each stage of flocking. A nice and easy win for once.
For years I didn't bother with bridges, just using my roads and having the river sections run either side of it, which worked OK, but lacked that visual punch that an actual bridge brings. So I bought one from Leven Miniatures, then scratch built one, as for many scenarios from Grant & Asquith et al, you need more than one. Last year I added to the collection with one from Battlescale. These can all be seen below:
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| All of my current bridges. |
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| The latest one from Battlescale and 6mm (I think). I had to raise this up by about 2mm so that it could sit astride the Pendraken river sections, as otherwise it just sat on the banks floating in space. |
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| This bridge is wider than the Leven Miniatures one, so tanks can generally sit quite comfortably on it. They do a cobbled version which in hindsight I wish that I'd bought, as blending the colours into my road sections was tricky, but sort of works. |
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| My 'old' Leven Miniatures bridge, that I cut into my existing river sections as this was pretty much the only way to get it to work. Not as flexible as the freestanding ones, but visually much nicer. |
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| The bridge is much narrower and so any tanks, or even 1" wide infantry bases sit on the bridge sides rather than the bridge itself. Still, it's a lovely piece and probably looks better for earlier periods. |
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| A really simple scratch build to give me a wooden style bridge, with foam ramps covered in grit, with an MDF central section covered with matchsticks. Quick and very effective. |
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| Perfect for the Eastern Front or hastily assembled bridges by engineers in say the 18thC & 19thC. |
The one thing I would takeway from all of these would be to buy the bridges you like first, so that you can check what size river sections would fit underneath, without it being a tight squeeze. It saves a lot of hassle later as I know from experience!
What Next?
Possibly some more simple terrain tweaks or upgrades whilst I'm in the mood. It would be nice to get a game in of something or the other, but nothing floats my boat at present. Of course painting more AFV's is an option that is staring at me from across the painting desk.
As always, thanks for reading and any comments are very welcome.
TTFN.
Very nice collection of bridges, Steve! Coincidentally, I have another bridge on order from my friends at Temu...a box girder one this time, which will bring my collection up to four, and may be enough...although I only have them in 28mm.....
ReplyDeleteThanks Keith:). Four bridges is surely enough, he says;)! That does remind me that I would like a box girder bridge too, for use with my railway tracks, possibly my roads too, so that I can do something Arnhem'esque. Off to do some 'research' now...
DeleteBeautiful looking bridges Steve!
ReplyDeleteThankyou Michal:)!
DeleteNice looking bridges
ReplyDeleteThanks Nick:)!
DeleteNice work Steve!
ReplyDeleteJust one thing. If you're getting a box girder bridge for WWII you ought to get a Bailey Bridge too. Just saying. Oh and a pontoon bridge for earlier periods too. ;-)
Thanks Chris:)! I do have a Churchill bridge layer in the lead pile, which aside from not being painted, I've yet to find a scenario to use them in, without them getting shot to pieces on route. Mind you I could use the bridge as is as if it been placed there earlier. Now there's an idea:). Oh and I do have plans to make a pontoon bridge at some point...
DeleteNice to integrate the bridge fully with both waterway and roadway. You really don’t know how a bridge will interact with current terrain until it arrives. I have one as well that ‘hangs in space’!
ReplyDeleteI'm happy with how all the bridges have come out, although the last one was a bit of a pain if I'm honest. Floating bridges would drive me nuts though, but could be hidden with bits of lichen etc.
DeleteGreat looking bridges, Steve. Super job on making them integrate with your terrain.
ReplyDeleteThanks Richard:)! Certainly worth the effort involved from my perspective to avoid the floating bridge syndrome;).
DeleteNice bridges Steve, work really well with your existing terrain, the little scratch built wooden one is very well done.
ReplyDeleteThanks Donnie and I enjoyed the simple scratch building of the bridge and hope to do some more in the future:).
DeleteWorking on three timber pontoon bridges at the moment, you can never have too many, these look great!
ReplyDeleteBest Iain
Thanks Iain and even thought I have these, I'm thinking of adding some more;)!
DeleteExcellent variety of bridges. The double arch is my favorite. I ought to grab one of these. As others have mentioned, good job on integrating these spans into the terrain.
ReplyDeleteThanks Jon:)! The double arch is indeed nice and reminds me of a multispan bridge in the town near to where I was born, that was rather narrow, but just looked so great. It even had a chapel built into the centre of the span that was still holding weddings when I lived there.
DeleteAll looks good on the bridge front. You could, of course, make “ruined” versions of each, but that does seem a lot of effort (although the wooden bridge would be relatively straightforward - just have half of the matchsticks damaged, out of place etc). As others have mentioned, a pontoon bridge would be useful.
ReplyDeleteCheers,
Geoff
Thanks Geoff:)! I was actually thinking of getting a ruined/sleighted one this weekend that I could use as is, or have a drop in 'repaired' section. More 'research' needs to be done...
DeleteBridges….mmmm. Tricky things bridges. I’ve never had any that look as nice as yours. Lot of spans hanging in mid air or units stuck atop the abutments etc. Well done mate. Well tidy as they say in Wales.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad they pass muster Mark:)! Certainly not easy to get them to sit right, as mentioned above.
DeleteThose look great Steve, so versatile.
ReplyDeleteThanks Stu and they cover all the periods I currently game, which is good:).
DeleteThey look the part Steve nice work 👍
ReplyDeleteThanks Matt:)!
DeleteBeautifully painted and finished Steve. You'll certainly get the visual punch from those! That improvise bridge really took my eye.
ReplyDeleteBest wishes, James
Thankyou James:)! Glad you liked the scratch built bridge too.
DeleteNot a bridge too far amongst them! Very nice terrain pieces, interesting to see how they were fitted in too!
ReplyDeleteThanks David:). Good to see you nicely fitting in a line from the film, and of course the book title too!
Delete