Modeling Water for Wargames

Modeling Water
for Colonial-era Wargames

This section features methods of creating rivers, seas, and lakes on the wargames table.

crumpled cellophane Cellophane Giftwrap
Cellophane makes the best water the Ouargistan group has ever tried. This brand is 'Clearphane' from the giftwrap department of the local MJD craft superstore. It comes in rolls 30" by 25 ft (76 x 762cm) , is easy to cut, and is cheap enough to create a custom water area for every game. It is so thin that it does not appear to be lying above the level of the ground surface. Be sure to place it so that the edges curl downward. If necessary, stick it down with double-stick clear tape at a few points, but don't stretch it tight. The loose wrinkles form an irregular, reflective, waterlike surface. Push a boat along and a little bow wave forms naturally. It's amazing.

Cellophane for River and Lake Water. For a smooth surface, just lay down the cellophane directly off the roll. For small choppy waves (see photo), wrinkle the cellophane by lightly wadding it up in your hands, then lay it down and check the effect. If you want more texture, repeat the process until it looks right. Heavier crumpling may require taping down at more points along the shore.

cellophane breakers Cellophane for Ocean Water
If your scenario requires a strip of ocean along the edge of the table, you can simulate lines of waves coming into shore by grasping the center of the strip strongly with both hands, so that it wads up in one direction only, and then moving your hands outward to the ends, creating roughly parallel lines of wrinkles. Then crumple the piece very lightly in the other direction to create irregularities in the parallel waves.
cellophane river

Cellophane for Slow Rivers and Marsh Ponds
The Clearphane also comes in a dull green, which is effective for jungle-style or other slow-flowing rivers. The still waters are best suggested by laying the cellophane smoothly, without wrinkling.
Steve Winter and Rick Norton report that a supermarket product, Reynolds Extra-Wide Storage Wrap, comes in a clear teal color which works well for water, especially in multiple layers. Its 18" width is not quite as handy as Clearphane's 30" rolls, but it may be easier to find. You can see it in the Sualco section of Steve's Colonial Angle website.

Bulletin Board Paper
Some stationery, educational supply, and art supply stores sell colored bulletin-board paper or project paper off large rolls, and there is usually a suitable blue in stock. Aqua usually looks better than dark blue. The paper is sold by the foot and is quite cheap, so you can afford to cut different water areas for each scenario and throw it away afterward.

Cut the paper to shape, then crumple it and smooth it out again. Place a few pieces of double-sided tape underneath, at the shore to keep the paper from lifting up at the edge. The crumpling gives the solid colored paper a fair amount of visual variation. If more is desired, try dabbing the paper with a small natural sponge dipped in very thin blue acrylic paint .

vinyl water Upholstery Vinyl
Fabric stores carry upholstery vinyl in a variety of colors. Marine vinyl, for covering boat seats, is heavy-duty and backed with fabric; it is especially useful. Vinyls which are smooth and in solid colors look too artificial, but some brands with leather-grained texture and splotchy color can make very attractive water.

David's favorite vinyl (see photo) is the 'Hippo Hide' brand, because of its irregular color, semigloss sheen and heavy embossed grain texture. At one time, it came in an aqua as well as a deep blue. For lake and river water, the aqua was most useful but, (lamentably) has been out of production for several years.

The 'Flotilla' brand of marine vinyl has less grain texture, but it still makes very effective water. It also comes in deep blue but, alas, its excellent splotchy aqua also seems to have been recently discontinued. Gamers may just have to wait for aqua-colored boat seats to come back into fashion. Still, it is worth checking several fabric stores - one may have old stock or carry a different line that will work well.

The best way to use vinyl is to have a full sheet of vinyl covering the whole table, and custom-cut brown wrapping paper for the land area. The brown paper can be crumpled slightly for an irregular surface. Cork hill pieces can be used to enhance or vary the shape of the shoreline. The full sheet of blue vinyl is also useful for naval games, if you play them.

It is possible to cut out irregular strips of the blue vinyl for the water areas, but vinyl tends to curl up at the edges, and the double-stick tape sometimes has a hard time keeping a grip on the fabric backing.

Cloth
Though felt is the traditional gaming-table material, its fluffy texture does diminish credibility when it is used as water. However, the fabric store will have a number of smoother-texture blue cloth types. Check the calico print section especially, and you may well find very thin, irregularly mottled blue cloth at a reasonable price that would work well for water.

Marking Shoals and Depth Contours
Some games may require that shallow water be marked, so that deep-draught vessels cannot pass. For paper, cloth, or vinyl, a white dressmaker's pencil or the crumbly style of white pencil from an art supply store will make a light mark for the boundary between deep and shallow water; the line is apparent but not distractingly obvious, and is easily wiped off at the end of the game. For cellophane, a blue thin-point visual-aid marker (the sort that wipes off with a damp tissue) can be used; if the line looks too strong, use dots or dashes.

For a deluxe treatment of water depth, you can first cut the deep water areas out of the blue cellophane and tape them down, then cut a larger area incorporating both the shallow AND the deep areas, and place it over the first layer.

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