The Old Rustic Bridge by the Mill, and other 6mm delicacies

The previous 6mm battle over the Schultze-Böhnstadt empire featured a river crossing the length of the table. For a diverse battlefield, scenery pieces such as these have to be built: a water mill, a bridge, some blue foam trees and redoubts.

This could just as well be a little diorama piece. The bridge is the simplest one, it has a balsa wood core and green stuff surface. I have painted the stone dark grey, washed and drybrushed it, and it ws ready. It's inside is 3cm wide, enough for a column to march through it comfortably, but not anything with a wider frontage.

The trees are blue foam pieces on wooden sticks, with some green added and a wet highlight with a brighter shade.

The mill is made mostly from paper and balsa. The main building rests on a 6mm balsa piece, and the smaller one has a 2mm plasticard base. A piece of card holds the wheel, the stoney side of the canal and the building together. The visible beams are balsa pieces, and so are the spokes of the water wheel. The stones are from GS again. I really liked building this piece, and remember having my dad build similar stuff for me when I was very little. An odd fascination, water mills. 

The redoubts have a 5" frontage to seat one infantry unit and a cannon. Not the best of solutions as the infantry is cut in halves, but at least the thing is coherent. A battalion of grenadiers show the size here. The walls are from balsa, and the base is thick cardboard covered with paper. When it was dry, I covered the whole thing in PVA then dunked it in sand. The walls still have too defined edges for my eyes, but it is otherwise OK. In the next 6mm battle, I would like to try Maurice with a larger disparity in the opposing forces, one entrenched behind redoubts and the other trying to overcome them. There are six of these earthworks overall, and they could easily form a small fort. For more abstract sieges, the star-shaped stone fort I built would serve better, though.

To keep on with the 6mm topic, the second half of the GNW Swedish army had finally arrived from Baccus, and I've already finished the guns. These are battalion guns from the WSS range but fit the GNW just as well - the cannons are cute little things. The other two packs are infantry in karpus and dragoons.