Above is a pic of Lt. Colonel James Galbraith, Regimental Colour in hand, alongside Bobbie the regimental dog and some of the other "Last Eleven" survivors of the 66th (Berkshire) Regiment, making their last stand in one of the walled gardens just South of Khig village, a few miles West of the Afghan town of Maiwand.

Wednesday, July 10, 2024

Making a Modest Foot Bridge

 After setting up tabletop terrain for the Battle of Kalu Khan, something nagged at me...


It seemed like if this was the real layout of a real village with a farmhouse & cropfields on one side of the Kabul River, and a watermill and village buildings -- as well as a fortified hill-tower -- on the other, there would almost certainly be a bridge linking the two parts of the village, somewhere in the area circled in RED below:

I tried using each of my many bridges but they were either far too "upscale" for the modest village setting, or didn't fit.  I went on Etsy and searched for 28mm rope bridges, foot bridges, etc., and found a couple of contenders, but... none of them were the right size either -- couldn't span the width of my terrain board river.  So I decided to make my own...


I used white glue to secure all the wood pieces...
























I used Slo-Zap super glue (which takes longer to dry than Crazy Glue) to secure the string "rope lines"...










Plastic fruit netting:









Primer:



Color:







I wasn't sure what kind of glue to use for attaching the net pieces to the rope stringers, so I did a test with GORILLA, SLO-ZAP & TACKY WHITE GLUE:


Winner:


GORILLA GLUE








Final coat of pale cream paint to lighten up the rope lines:




I was very happy with how this modest wood & rope bridge turned out, and I expect to use it many times in the future.  I also may use it in a scenario to build a "bridge" between Rocky Mountain heights, providing a faster path for troops to take instead of having to climb down and back up again.

But for now, it would play its first part in the coming Battle of Kalu Khan, the AAR for which should be on view here very son in my next post on this blog.............


1 comment:

  1. Fabulous post, not only another opportunity to see your amazing terrain board but an additional build. The use of the fruit bag for the knotted rope was inspired!

    ReplyDelete