Battlefield in a Box : River Bends

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No man crosses the same river twice

For the man has changed and so has the river

Heraclitus

Unless that is you've purchased a Battlefield in a Box river set from Battlefront.

If like me you've been humming and havering about the boxed river sets from Battlefront, I thought yesterday that you might appreciate a review whilst I had a camera handy.

I purchased the Battlefront Battlefield in a Box – River Expansion: Bends (#BB514) from Maelstrom Games for £13.50 - normal RRP £15.00. Choosing this boxed set deliberately over and above the main Battlefield in a Box River set (#BB105) because I only need three feet of river and don't want two overpriced and quite frankly, ugly model bridges.

What do you get in this box then? 3x 30cm meandering painted rubber river sections and the tiniest bag of bright green flock you will ever come across.

Each river section comes painted and has earth and rock detail moulded onto the banks. The river itself is 60mm wide whilst including the banks, the sections are 95mm wide overall. The rubber used is flexible without being bendy and quite durable at 3mm thick across the width of the river and 5mm thick at the banks.


You can see from the photos that the banks are painted in a flat khaki earth tone. You can leave this as is, enhance with drybrushing or paint/flock to match your gaming board and a small bag of 'summer' green flock is included. The river itself comes painted an 'Ultramarine Blue' with pale blue currents as accents - it's definitely a satin finish rather than glossy as shown in the box art.


The river sections join together perfectly, sit flat on the game surface and are flexible enough to follow slight variations in the playing surface.

Value for money? Three 300x95mm river sections for £15.00 (RRP) from Battlefront vs 5 x 300x50mm very straight flexible rubber river sections from LKM/QRF for £18.00, or 4 x 300x55mm painted straight resin river sections from Terrain Warehouse at £16.00. Not an exact comparison but it demonstrates that the price is roughly comparable with other products on the market.

To sum up, I like the fact that this is an attractive, robust product that can be taken out of the box and put straight on the table with no extra effort, but also that it has plenty of potential for extra detailing as whim and free time allow.

Cheers
Mark
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