Kipaji Mto

Say what?  I'll explain below.  Meanwhile, here are a variety of shots showing progress on the way to completing the river for Mike's Rumble In The Jungle (Dust Tactics) game with another play test tomorrow before its first convention outing in April.

 Above shows one of the layouts with some, maybe all four, of the browns applied.  The two green hills are my own plywood hills.  Durability, baby.

 And a reverse shot.  The black is gloss and is the river bottom.  Study carefully, there are 22 pieces in total, seven for the ridge and fifteen for the river (though one of the latter, the 'spring', does double duty).

 And a variation of the angle.

 An alterative layout, there are many.  As I've worked on getting this river ready, I've realized more and more possible combinations and options with these pieces.

Here is the most basic, the six 'straight' pieces and the three 'extenders, that provides a 12' long river.

 Without the extenders it is 10' long.

 Or there can be two different rivers 5' long each to divide a table in three sections.

 All of the ridge pieces and the artesian spring as they 'turn green.'

The various river pieces, less the spring.  The five to the top right are for confluences, though they can be used to extend the river to 17' or so in total -- but would need some use of lichen or some other disguise of the mismatched edges.  Obviously, the river is still black.

 A beginning at coloring the river bottom, from the edges towards the center, above and below.

 I think this is the final coloring of the ridge.

 Or maybe this one?

Will my plan work?  That is a test piece I used as I moved forward from here.

A closer shot of same.  Note there are three colors at the bottom of the river, the mixed green to the sides, the shallower tan, and the deeper brown down the center with some 'smoothing' between them.

We see here all the river pieces with the above coloring.  Things are coming together.  And, yes, all eight browns and greens are done on the 'hills' to the sides of the river.

A first coat of 'water'.

More testing before committing.

Another coat of water, the first two were green.

And then the first of two coats of blue.  (I think.)

Skipping over some steps, where it really starts to show blue and get 'sparkly'.  Or the finished product, if you prefer.  Below...

All the river pieces in one view.  The left is the conflueces, 96" in total if I calculated it right.  The right is the long 'straight' set up with the spring, almost 14' in total.

And a different angle.

Below, at long last, is a shot of my French and Indain war canoe collection with photos taken 'in situ.'

Action is imminent as the Courier du Bois and their Native allies come round the bend to spy Rangers and their Native allies on the water ahead.  On the bank is a unit of one of the Independent companies.

Just another shot of the sparkling river, Kipaji Mto.

The French and their allies.

The British ashore, two shots.

The Rangers and their allies -- and a good omen rising up the bank on the upper right.  (a bear I sculpted out of Sculptamold, a bit large but it works.)

A clsoer shot of the omen.  The green cloth is actually going to be cut up and used as terrain identifiers -- a forest or something, haven't really decided yet.

A low angle shot of the river from the ranger end, or is that a hawk's eye view?

A closer look at the Courier du Bois and friends.

If you tried to count them you should have come up with a total of 44 canoes and 96 paddlers.  The smallest are from Frontier, the other two man canoes are all from Irregular, and the three man canoes I crafted myself, again from Sculptamold -- the paddlers in those boats are also from Irregular they were nice enough to provide without their canoes (many years ago now).

And something completely different -- and rather improbable -- are a couple of my river boats.  The front one is Far West and I think the other is the 'colonial' boat, from Merrimack if memory serves but now available from Old Glory 25's.  These boats are in 15 mm, of course.  I have a half dozen other boats plus a couple of junks, a couple of ironclads, and a couple of 'ocean' ships.  No pictures just now.  Obviously, these are only primed, not painted.

Above was without the flash and below was with, flash really washed out detail and color on the riverboats.

And last, photo-wise, are a couple of closer shots of the boats.  These are primarily for my Slightly Cracked Colonials found under the Steeplechase tab above.  They can serve other purposes, why I can even use the Far West as itself along the Missouri in the the Little Bighorn Campaign -- that didn't work out so well for Custer.

And now, as promised, Kipaji Mto.  That is Swahili for Brilliant River, I was going for Sparkling River but I guess that doesn't work in Swahili.  And I have no idea if it translates as intended or as "Really Smart River!"  Don't care, neither.  But I like the name.  We'll see if Mike adapts it or not for his game.