Next, I explained why I try and avoid a sudden 'End' to a base and sometimes build something simple to try and make the final pictures more natural. So having a river bed, a bridge seemed the obvious solution.
Using a pencil, I marked the bridge face detail for him and explained how the arches stayed up in the real thing. His first attempt at scribing the stonework with the scalpel was not successful. Fair play to him he wasn't phased, so we made another. This time he succeeded. He then added a coat of grey to the stonework. Big smiles and a hug. - Winner!
For a bit of variation we built two different sizes of bridge arch and added tubes to add a bit of darkness under the bridge. We then stuck the whole bridge frontage to the base and the stone wall end.
We then added just two coats of varnish to the river bed - one each. Then I showed him how to carefully bed the reeds and greenery into the tacky varnish. Then he add some broken stonework made from off-cuts of polystyrene. I did one end and he did the other. Guess which?.....That's my boy!
Here's the pictures of the finished base.
The false rear. These added a bit of depth and darkness to the arches, giving an illusion of a complete bridge in the final pictures.
The boy was well impressed, yet another hug. 'Ruffy Tuffy' Grandad reached for a tissue claiming he had something in his eye...........It doesn't get much better.
We added a second coat of road rubble to make the surface more bumpyerer. Now it's finally ready to plonk the tank on.
Thanks for looking.
Cheers.
R & G.S.