Novus Design Studio River Terrain

“Let’s be honest….” That’s how a smiling Dennis Quaid starts a recent commercial, but it’s also how I want to start this post – “Let’s be honest, I suck at terrain building.”

There are many good tutorials on making water features with resins, latex caulk and even humble Modpodge. But, like most of you, I have to weigh the cost of crafting materials and the amount of time it takes to learn a new craft technique versus the time I want to spend playing the game. So, sometimes it is better to purchase terrain.

For my 10mm Seven Years War project, I need a river. The entire purpose of the engagement at Hoya was to capture the remaining bridge over the Weser River. Much of the Kleinkrieg or “small war” fought in the opening months of 1758 was to capture bridges, fords and places to build bridges. The French were pulling back and were eager to slow down the advance of the Duke of Brunswick toward the Rhine.

The main thing I was looking for in pre-made terrain was – 1, it had to look like a river and 2, it had to work with the 10mm bridge from Pendraken Miniatures. I found exactly what I was looking for at Novus Design Studio.

Novus Design Studio makes a 15mm series of river sections that work well for 10mm gaming as well. I purchased the seven piece river set, which is exactly what I needed since the set contains a ninety-degree bend. The city of Hoya was built near such a bend in the Weser.

The river sections are three inches wide from edge to edge and the blue portion representing the water is about two and half inches wide. The straight sections are ten inches long and the curved sections are eight inches long. Each section lays flat and connect with very little seam showing.

The river bank is 1/4″ tall which fits the table scale well since I am using bases which are 3mm thick.

I’m happy with this terrain set. It’s well made and the price was reasonable. As most of you know, I’m a slow painter, so I’m never in a hurry to receive products – in other words, I almost always pick the most economical shipping rate which sometimes takes a little longer. I received the river set within two weeks of my order, which is great.

The only thing to be aware of is that there was a white residue on the river sections, but wiping the sections with a damp paper towel removed it.