EURICA HEATS UP, AGAIN

 Return with us now to those golden days of the mid 1980’s, when Communist were evil and Capitalist were good (or at least better).  It’s been a while since we last visited the region of Africa known as Eurica.  What’s that you say, you’ve never heard of Eurica?  Or maybe it’s just that it’s been about 3 years since the whole Eurica foolishness started and you have like, actual important stuff to remember.

In any event, for a refresher you can check out the Eurica overview at https://barrysredoubt.blogspot.com/2022/03/eurica-was-project-x.html  for the 1985 CIA (that’s Conceptual ImagiNation Assessment) Source Book on the region.  If that peaks your interest enough you can always find the assessments of the other belligerents by sorting on the label ‘Eurica Campaign’.  The orders of battle are outdated, but the backgrounds are accurate.

While 3 years have passed for you and me, time moves differently in Eurica, where it has only been 5 months since the events in Eurica Goes Hot (see here https://barrysredoubt.blogspot.com/2022/07/eurica-goes-hot.html ). One of our stalwart Lt. from that adventure return.

 

On with the foolishness!

____________________

 

2:45 a.m., November 3, 1985.  Wilhelmsland Border with Rubishland

 

Lt. Weber was pleased with the stealth his platoon showed as they moved into their observation positions under cover of darkness.  He felt a slight sense of unease, as this location was a mere 45 miles from the location on the border he and Lt. Koch had fought the initial battle of the last Rubishland invasion at. He was also uneasy as this was his platoons first deployment with their ‘new’ gifts from the Americans, a platoon of M551 Sheridan light/recon tanks; he missed his old Scorpion.  His Company and a Company of the newly arrived M-60A3 tanks just assigned to 2^nd Brigade had been deployed to monitor this region of the border.  The M-60A3 platoon was commanded by LT Holt, who Weber really didn’t know that well.  But the big noisy tanks managed to take up their observation positions without giving away their presence.  Now the boring part of staying hidden and observing.

Apparently high command had a reason to expect the Rubishlanders may be preparing another incursion.  

 

But a nagging thought kept telling Weber this wouldn’t be boring for long, the rules of engagement had been too specific. He remembered his briefing from Oberst Richter– “if they cross to our side of the ridge line do not engage, but report.  If they continue on and contact the Border Road, light them up, do not wait for authorization. Report immediately, air assets will be standing by ready to scramble if needed.”  As he reflected on this more, he began to wonder just what the hell command knew that they weren’t sharing.  Any if they knew something, why did they just send 2 platoons?  

 

 

The view of the soon to be battlefield, looking Southerly.  In the upper right is a farm house and farm. At the top of the photo is the Ridgeline that defines the border, and the nice, paved, Border Road on the Wilhelmsland side.

 

At 6:12 a.m. Weber’s gunner announced, “Sir, movement front, still on their side of the border”.  Weber dropped down to the commander’s gun site and mumbled a curse, “T-62’s? where the hell did they get those from.” 

Thirty seconds after calling in the spot report Oberst Richter responded, “Rules of engagement are unchanged, I’m getting air assets vectored your way.

This ‘tip of the spear’ shit while being outnumbered and outgunned is getting old, Weber mused.  It was then Weber realized the mistake he made in his initial deployment, he was still thinking like a Scorpion Commander.  The Sheridan’s Shillelagh missile had incredible range but they couldn’t be used up close.  That meant they had to rely on their 152mm main gun HEAT (High Explosive Anti-Tank) rounds, and his left most tank was too close to the road and would only be able to get one missile shot off most likely. 

 Unfortunately, the recoil from the conventional rounds had a bad habit of screwing up the IR missile tracking if they tried to switch back to missiles. 

 

                      Rubishland arrives, view from the Wilhelmsland side

 

Turn 2

As his command crossed into Wilhelmsland territory, the Commander of the Rubishland Battalion was still trying to grasp his orders.  “Cross the border near the outlying farm and liberate the crops in the fields from the capitalist oppressors and return the crops to Rubishland for the Generals dinner.  Use of deadly force on any attempt to interfere with our people’s right to the Capitalist food is authorized. From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.  Now go Comrade Major, do your duty to Rubishland.”

 

Lt. Weber watched as the Rubishland vehicles advanced willing them to stop before reaching the Border Road.  Sadly they didn’t, as the Recon BRDM entered the middle of the road he ordered his to platoon to fire. 

Weber's left most tank hit and killed a T-62, the next tank missed, apparently the early morning sun washing out the Infrared single to the missile causing it to careen wildly into the sky.  Lt. Weber's tank fired at the BRDM-2, apparently getting a glancing hit by the missile body (curse that sun shine), causing the BRDM to take a morale check, which it passed.  The remaining tank of Weber's platoon fired at the Recon BMP destroying it.  The M-60A3 tanks of Lt. Kirk's platoon remained in their hide positions.

With Lt. Weber's Company now visible after firing, the Rubishland forces return fire.  Only 3 of the Rubishland tanks were in range, hitting one of Lt. Weber's tanks causing it to take a moral check, which it passed.

As always, double click to enlarge.  The puffs of smoke show those units that fired. Destroyed units have flame and smoke markers. View from the Rubishland side.

Turn 3

The Rubishland Commander swore as the recon BMP to his front burst into flames.  

Curse generals and curse these damnable Capitalist, why couldn't they peacefully accept the inevitability of the Peoples Revolution? He ordered his left most company to proceed to the fields and begin to harvest them.  His right and center companies were ordered to advance and eliminate the Wilhelmsland units.  The crew of the BRDM said 'screw this', and fell back.

The Wilhelsmland units stayed in the woods.  

The Rubishland units fire, destroying one of the Sheridan Platoons on their right flank, and one of the Sheridan Platoons in the center.  Lt. Weber's Company fires at the 2 advancing companies of T-62's, destroying 3 platoons.  The left most company of the Rubishland force closed in on the field to their front, while some of the members of the tank platoon by the farm house dismount to loot the home, (no doubt looking for one of those elusive betamax video players that were the objective of the last Rubishland invasion.)

Lt. Weber winced as he saw one of his tanks explode in a brilliant ball of fire.  "only Americans would use aluminum for Tank Armor" he muttered and then he heard a loud road and saw a sheet of flame as his tank erupted into flames and darkness engulfed him.

The Commander of Rubishland Battalion swore as the more of his command died, then we was thrown face first into the commander's gunsite and everything went dark.

Wow - the Platoons both Commanders were with were destroyed... that was a bloody round. I'll have to come up with some rolls at the end of the battle to see who lived or died.

Scene of the carnage

Rubishland left flank.  One tank platoon plundering the farm house, and the others closing on the field.

Turn 4

The Rubishland unit on their left flank moved into the field, the laborers jumped out of the trucks and began shucking corn and throwing it into the trucks. Finding the farmhouse already looted, the troops of that platoon remount and advance to engage the remaining Sheridan near them. The other 2 Rubishland Companies, each now down to a single platoon continue to advance to engage the remaining Sheridans.

The 2 left most Wilhelmsland M-60A3 tank platoons charge out of the woods to get into range to engage the remaining T-62.  The other 2 platoons stay in the woods and prepare to engage the T-62's in the field to their front.

The Rubishland tanks fire and destroy another platoon of Sheridans.  The far left T-62 by the farm house fires and destroys the last Sheridan.  The remainder of tthe far left company of T-62's is out of range of the visible Wilhelmsland forces and can't fire.

The Wilhemsland Sheridan's fire and destroy 1 platoon of T-62's and force another to take a morale check which it fails.  The M-60A3's that charged out of the woods fire at the platoon by the farm house, forcing it to take a morale check which it fails.

The 2 M-60A3 platoons still in the woods fire at the T-62's in the farm field and missed.  The fancy, high tech thermal imaging sites confusing the gunners still new to the technology.

The sole surviving Rubishland Company Commander decided they had enough corn for the General and ordered his troops to prepare to retreat.

Turn 5

The surviving Rubishland vehicles begin to withdraw back to their side of the border.  The M60-A3 tanks advance, and the Air Force finally decides to show up.  I guess they needed to hit the breakfast buffet at the Officers Club one last time before they headed out to the flight line.

A Wilhelmsland Tornado came screaming in unloading cluster bombs on the fleeing Rubishlanders, Causing one T-62 to fail a morale check and destroying the truck full of corn that all of this blood was spilled over. Two of the M-60A3 platoons fire at the remaining T-62 platoon and the other M-60A3's fire at the second retreating truck, destroying both.

The air strike goes in, better late than never.

End of the battle.  It looks a lot better enlarged on a computer screen.

Well, that went quick.  And it was definitely a bad day for the Sheridan recon tanks.  If used in a proper recon role they may be ok, but trying to use them as a cheap tank, isn't going to work.  Lt. Weber should have changed his deployment, M-60A3's close to the road, Sheridan's with the stand off range of their missiles further back.

Speaking of Lt. Weber, he survived, at least he was still alive when they pulled him from the wreckage of his tank.  

The Rubishland Commander did not.  Probably for the best for him and his family as President for Life Idi Sanford is not a forgiving man when commanders fail him.

What will Wilhelmsland do now?  They still haven't recovered in either material or trained manpower since the last war ended mere months ago.  What exactly is the Wilhelmsland high command up to?  And the really big question, how long will go by until I get around to the next installment?  Months? years? decades?

Enjoy the nice fall weather.  Probably less than a month before the first snow.

So much lead, so little time.

 

WPBC BREAKING NEWS

 

Finally!!

After 13 years I’ve finally gotten around to finishing the 27^th Division on the Russian 2^nd Army of the West as it fought at Borodino.  

The Tarnopol Regt. of Stavitski’s Brigade is finally done.  That leaves the 26^th Division and a couple of Grenadier Regiments as the only outstanding units for the 2^nd Army of the West.  I thought about acquiring the remaining lead, but then, I sadly realized that with my move to the hinterlands of Maine, I’ll probably never get them on the table again, certainly not in another refight of Borodino.  But enough with the maudlin wool gathering - on to the photos.

Sorry about the quality of the photos (and the painting – it’s been way too long since I painted Napoleonic figures).  The 2 battalions are shown below.  I may have gotten a little heavy handed with the black wash, but at gaming distance they look acceptable.

As always with my Russians, figures are Front Rank, flags are GMB.

1st Battalion 

3rd Battalion

And while I was rummaging around look for the Russian lead, I managed to scrape up enough Polish Lead to do one more unit of Duchy of Warsaw troops.  This is just your basic generic Duchy of Warsaw unit.  Figures are Old Glory, flag was something I found laying in the bottom of a box, not completely sure it's even Polish, but close enough for solo gaming.

Winter will soon be upon us, (frost warning for tonight further inland), so maybe the soon to be forced idleness we'll motivate me to get back to the Micro-armor project. I have been working on some 6mm terrain projects, if the end result isn't too horrific, you may see some of it here.

In any event, take care and enjoy the fall.

So much lead (and plastic), so little time.

Battle of Utitza

Or, I thought Utitza’s were bigger?  A scaled down version due to space issues on the table, I guess size does matter, at least on the table top.

Rules are Field of Battle, 3^rd edition.

After having pulled out the Duchy of Warsaw troops during the game room organization effort, I decided to get them back on the table in their role on the French right flank at Borodino.  So I dug through my computer files and found the OB and maps we used for our Borodino game back in 2012 at Historicon.  Unfortunately, I don’t have enough table space for the full layout, so what follows is a compacted battle field.

The initial setup.

The view from the Russian (defender) side.  Cossacks and Opolochenie on the left, 2nd Grenadier Division in the center, and 3rd Division on the right.

View from the Polish, V Corps, side.  Zayonchek's 16th Division on the left, Kniaziewicz 18th Division in the Center, and the Corps Cavalry on the right.

Turn 1

The first turn consisted of wasted cards for the Russians, the Poles on the other hand turned a Move card and Zayonchek’s Division on the Polish left flank surged ahead 2 move segments.  Not to be outdone, Kniaziewicz in the center stormed forward 3 move segments, almost making it to the base of the Utitiza hill.  The Cavalry on the right Polish right flank was clearly intimidate by this display and plodded forward one move segment.  The lone Russian Battery took the opportunity to fire at the infantry as they closed, inflicting one paltry casualty.  This may not be a very long battle report. The next Polish card was useless, but the 2 foot batteries elected to fire while they still had the inititive, and before their infantry blocked their fire.  The result of the cannonade was… nothing.

View from the Russian Grenadier's in the Village.  Boris, this might hurt a bit.

Turn 2

The second turn saw the Russian’s again win the initiative by one, turning… an Artillery Fire card!  Sometimes the card gods are generous.  The Russian artillery fires, inflicting 2 hits on the Polish Infantry, but rolling odd, so the Poles stand. (I think I got that right, while I’ve played Field of Battle 3^rd Edition before a long time ago, I haven’t ever run a game).  The Poles turn a ‘Lull’ card, but the Russian’s fail to seize the initiative.

Turn 3

Turn three saw the Russian’s again win the initiative by 8 and given the close proximity of the Poles the Russians opted to go first.  The first really useful card turned was an artillery fire, resulting in one hit which destroyed the already battered Polish infantry unit in front of the battery.  The Russian Grenadiers in the town used anInfantry Fire card to take a long range shot at the Poles and missed.  The Jagers in the woods used a move 1 command card to side step.

 

The Polish initiative saw them turning their first card which was another move card, things may get interesting.  Kniaziewicz Poles in the center advanced 2 segments into contact with the buildings, unfortunately they rolled odd, taking fire from the Grenadiers in the town, who missed.  2 Polish units fired at the unloaded Russian battery, doing a total of 2 hits to the battery.  The Polish left flank  under Zayonchek refused to move, even when Prince Poniatowski directly intervened, they still refused to move forward.   I guess fearful of the lone Russian Jager unit in the woods?  The Cavalry on the Polish right flank finally decided to move in a big way, charging forward 3 move segments into contact with the Russian Opolochenie, but unable to initiate melee.  

The Polish horse battery used an artillery fire card to cause 1 damage on a Cossack Regiment. 

The Poles then turned another Move card.  Zayonchek division on the Polish left flank cautiously moved forward, the lead unit contacting the woods the Russian Jagers were defending.  The woods erupted in smoke and the smell of sulfur, resulting in 2 hits for the lead polish unit. Kniaziewicz division in the center finally rolled even on a move roll, but only won one segment.  That was enough to allow the Poles to melee the Russian artillery, when the dust settled all that could be seen was the guns, the gunners were wiped out defending their guns.   

The Polish assault on the Grenadiers in town went poorly, with the attackers taking 2 hits and routing them.  The Polish Cavalry rolled one move segment, but the roll was even which allowed them to initiate melee with the Russian Opolchinie, resulting in one hit to the Opolochinie.  I realized I forgot to fire the Opolchinie when the caalry came into contact, so I fired that as well, resulting in no hits but forcing the cavalry to fall back.

The next useful card the Poles turned was a move one command  resulting in Zayonchek on the Polish left flank getting 2 move segments, moving into contact and initiating a firefight with the unit on the far Russian right flank, with the Poles taking 2 hits and the Russian’s taking 1 hit.

Leadership card, unit on Poles left flank recovered 2 hits.  Artillery firepower, Horse battery fires on Cossacks, routing them.

View at the end of turn 3.

Turn 4 saw the Russian’s again win the initiatives, by one and turn a Melee card.  On the Russian right flank the Jagers in the wood melee the Poles to their front, causing 1 hit and pushing the Poles back.  The far right Russian line unit melee’s the polish unit to its front, inflicting 2 hits which destroys it.  The Grenadiers in the middle of town melee the Poles to their front, and rout them.

The Poles turn a Artillery Fire card, and the horse battery fires at another battery of Cossacks, this time failing to get a hit.

View at the end of turn 4

Turn 5 started with The Russian’s again winning the initiative, by four this time.  The Infantry Fire card was the first useful card turned.  The Jagers in the woods reload and fire into the flank of the Polish unit to their front, and miss; while all the other unloaded units reload.  

The Poles seize the initiative on a Lull card, turning a melee card.  The Poles assault the Grenadiers in the Village, who fire as the Poles advance, and miss.  The Polish assault goes in, and they lose, suffering 1 hit. The French Cavalry charges the Opolochine in line.  The Opolochine fire as the French come in and miss.  The melee does 1 hit to the Opolochine and forces them back.

The Russians resume their initiative, turning an army morale card, and Konovnitizin, commander of the Russian right flank 3^rd Division falls, disordering the entire Division.

Russian end of Turn 5

The Poles turn another Melee card.  The Cavalry charges into the Cossacks, causing 1 hit to the Cossacks.  The Poles turn an Army Morale card and the Polish Cavalry Commander falls.  Followed by a Leadership card, with one of the Cavalry becoming ordered.  And lastly all non-routing infantry units reload on an infantry fire card.

Poles end of turn 5

Turn 6 begins with... you guessed it, the Russians again winning the inititive, this time by 3.  The first card is a Move card.  The Grenadier Division rolls even, for 3 move segments.  The Grenadiers behind Utitiza move forward into contact with the Polish infantry, who fire at point blank range with no impact.  The horse battery fires at the Grenadiers as they advance as well, causing 2 hits. The Grenadiers fire at the Polish Infantry causing 2 hits.  The Grenadiers in the middle of town move into contact with the Polish infantry, taking fire from 2 units resulting in no damage.  The Grenadiers then initiate Melee, causing 1 hit.  The Cossacks move forward to threaten the unloaded Polish Horse Battery.  On the Russian right flank the 3^rd Division slowly moves forward, still reeling from the loss of their commander.  Followed by a Leadership card, which had some success in rallying and removing hits.

End of Russian turn 6

The Poles turn an Infantry Fire, reload, and 2 units fire at the Grenadiers, which both missed.  The next card is also Infantry Fire, so repeat, with the same results.  The last card for this initiative is a Melee.  The only 2 units that can use it are already damaged.  The Center is pretty much crumbling, the Polish left flank has stalled, the Right flank cavalry is having success against the Milita units, but still haven’t managed to turn the flank.  The wise thing would probably be to hope for a move card and begin to withdraw, but with the eyes of the Emperor upon you, that isn’t an option, so… Attack!   The 2 battered Infantry units launch themselves into the Grenadiers, winning one and losing another.  

Poles end of Turn 6

Turn 7, the Russian’s go first again. Starting with a Move card, the Cossacks get 3 move segments putting one unit into contact with the unloaded Polish Horse Battery. The Opolochenie roll even and take the opportunity to form square.  Third Division units move into contact but can not initiate melee.  The Grenadiers shuffle their formation around to allow 1 unit to fire on the Polish Infantry with no effect.  Next card is Infantry Fire, all Russian units reload and the shooting commences, destroying 1 Polish unit.  

Another Move card, the Cossacks get 1 move segment, but rolled even, and initiate melee against the unloaded Polish Horse Battery, and the Cossacks loose, routing away.  3^rd Division gets 3 move segments with an even roll, moving into contact and initiating melee, causing 1 hit and forcing a unit back.  

The last Russian card Melee, a Grenadier unit inflected 1 hit and pushed back a Polish Infantry unit and another was able to melee the Polish Horse Battery, doing 2 hits.

 

The only useful card on the Polish turn was Leadership, which allowed them to rally one of the routing units of Infantry.

End of the game view from the Polish view

Time to shuffle the deck.  

 

At this point I called it.  The Poles had been paying the Russian’s morale chips for a while to the point that the Russians were only down 3 morale chips from their starting number. Plus I needed to have the gaming table picked up before our weekend guest arrived. 

I know I got a few things wrong, and sort of forgot about the whole ‘disordered’ thing until around the 3^rd or 4^th turn.  The actual playing time was between an hour and a hour and a half I think.  Hard to tell when you break it up into multiple sessions throughout the day.

The Russian Initiative die rolls were crazy lucky. And I think the Poles winning the 3 move segments early on and effectively screening their artillery for most of the battle actually hurt them in this case. In retrospect, with the Russian's only having 1 artillery battery, I think the Poles should have kept their advance a little more on line and given their artillery advantage a chance to do some damage.

 

All-in-all it felt good to get some Napoleonic figures on the table again.  

 

Take care,

 

So much lead, so little time

 

 

Faux Fulda More Terrain

 Some time ago someone asked me a question off the blog about how I was doing the terrain boards for the faux Fulda project.  I finally got around to finishing another 2'x2' section, and I actually managed to take photos of most of the steps.  

I'm sure there are a lot of different ways to do this, but this is what seems to work for me.  The more of these tiles I do the more I find myself adjusting terrain to avoid nasty things like hills that cross boards to save the hassle of making sure they line up and are uniform in heigh.

This board is part of the southern extension from the original batch and is centered in the Mechbach region.

Let's start with the finished results.

As I mentioned each terrain tile is 2 feet x 2 feet.  I'm using the foam insulation board readily available at either Lowes or Home Depot that has been pre-cut into 2'x2' sections. I'm using the Lowe's variety, it's 20 min. closer than Home Depot plus veteran's discount, win-win.

If you're artistic you can free hand the outline on the foam.  As I'm trying to keep the scale fairly close to 1" = 100 meters on all of these so I'm cheating.  I found a map of the region with a hex grid of 1 hex = 500 meters, took a photo, inserted the photo onto an Excel Spreadsheet expanded the photo until I ended up with the hex being 5".  Printed it out, taped the various sheets together and ended up with the below.  Shown below is the bottom section as well as the completed section directly to the North to make sure the roads, rivers and railroad line up.

Once I was sure everything lined up, I taped one edge of the map to the foam. board, and dug out the carbon paper.  Given the average age of the hobby, I'm assuming most folks reading this know what carbon paper is.  It wasn't easy to find, but as always, Amazon to the rescue.  

the form board covered with carbon paper.  I really didn't need that much paper, this is a pretty boring tile, just a small section of river, roads and railroads.  The hill won't start until the next tile is done.

Flip the map back down, and trace over the important details.  I used the handle of an old paint brush.  Once that was done, I pulled out the color felt tip markers, and traced over the carbon, ending up with this. Which will by modified a little for ease of creation as things go on,

Being limited to 2'x2' sections, the potential of shifting and other unpleasant things happening where the tiles meet I went with a simple magnet solution to help hold the sections together.

Simple round magnets.

A drill, a 3/4" speed bit, and a new home for the magnet is created.

Obviously a magnet needs something to attach to.  Fortunately I have a supply of HVAC galvanized tin that I use for the base of the my troop transport boxes.  So, out come the tin snips, a razor knife to carve a slight recess for the metal.

You can see above that the river has already been carved into the foam.

After that, it's time for the hot glue gun.  I never was a big fan of hot glue guns, but this project has opened my eyes to their usefulness.  It probably helps that I also bought a decent hot glue gun which makes world of difference.

Magnets and metal plates mounted, hopefully they're all flush with the board edge.  The board is turned upside down in this shot.

Next up we start making progress on the board, putting down the roads and railroad tracks.  A bit of a tangent on the rail road tracks.  When I started the project I agonized about whether I should include them or not, at the scale of 1" = 100meters they are way too big, but they are also a potential linear obstacle, and should provide hull down cover for armored vehicles adjacent to them, so I opted to include them.  

I also make a simple little jig (below) out of chip board so the roads/rail roads are all close to the same size/height.

The roads went down super easy on the first batch of boards, but... That was months ago and the AK terrain asphalt had dried out quite a bit since then, so not as smooth as I would have liked.  For the railroad beds, I mixed up some tile grout and applied that the same was as the roads.  I also coated the rivers with joint compound and applied some paint, which gets us to this below point.

Now it's time for the first layer.  For this we'll need glue, lots of glue, more tile grout, alcohol (the rubbing kind - although since we're done with sharp objects now, you can go to the distilled kind if you want), and spray bottle.

Paint on a health coat of glue.  I water it down just a smidge, but not much. Try to keep the glue out of the river bed, and off the road and railroad.

Apply the grout to the glue.  I've found that using a cheap strainer I picked up at the Family Dollar store to spread the grout give a texture I prefer.

You end up with this.  Let it dry for a couple of hours, depending on how impatient you are.  The soak it down with alcohol using the spray bottle.  Why alcohol?  I honestly don't remember, I saw that on the internet at some point and it seems to work.  Which give you a nice wet look like below.

I let this dry for a least 24 hours maybe longer if it still feels damp.  I did this in a couple of sections, mostly due to time issues.

Once it's all coated with grout, hen you think it's dry, it's time to paint on some more glue. Grab your preferred flock, and go wild.  Again, try to keep the glue out of the river bed. For me it seems to work better if I do the flock in small chunks.  Especially since I use a different color flock for the wooded areas, which this board has a lot of.

The sort of cement colored section in the middle of the photo is a town section.  I used AK Terrain Cement for this.

Once the flock is all down I put the tracks on the rail road bed.  I use 24 gauge wire and a lot of super glue.  Any bridges either road or rail, are made from leftover 1.5 mm thick troops bases from my 15mm days. The bases are covered in the AK Terrain Cement.  Rail Road bridges have wire added, road bridges has AK Terrain Asphalt added.

This is a work in progress but you get the idea of how the railroad is represented.

The next step is head outside and seal the whole thing.  I've been using a mat clear paint which seems to work well - so far.

And the last thing, is to add the Woodland Scenics Realistic Water to the rivers.  Depending on how deep you cut the river beds, this may take several pours to the complete. A word of warning on the river, I've found I have about a 50% success rate in the tape I use to block of the rivers where they run off the boards - so make sure you same paper towels or something similar under those areas just in case.

And when that's all done and you add trees, it looks something like the photo we started with.

Whew, that's a lot of photos.  Hopefully I didn't leave out any major steps.  Nothing to earth shattering, it works for me your mileage may vary.

I hope you all have a great summer

So much lead, so little time.