Okay, I just read the “help me I’m 12” thread… and no-one answered the question… How exactly do you model mud?
Come on you guys can do anything/everything… what do you do for colour / depth / gooeyness / splatter / anything else you can think of… maybe apart from shell craters…?
Put another way what really says “mud” to you in a scene?
TIA [8D]
I haven’t done it, but if I was to model mud, a muddy road or such,I’d use plaster, as it sets use an old car or tractor and make tracks in mud and use either mud paint(scalecoat) or what ever shades of browns to match earth colors. Mud splatters could be made with an airbrush and heavy splatters could be made by using small brush and dipping lightly in paint and lighly flicking on what ever you’re trying to cover.Muddy water usually has no depth, being it’s full of dirt and such, so a muddy creek would be painted as such first before pouring your resins or varnishes, same for mud puddles. Basically mud colors should be close to dirt colors you’re using. I hope this helps.
I haven’t modeled it yet but Lou Sassi wrote a great book entitled “How to Build & Detail Model Railroad Scenes”. In it he has a recipe for “ground goop”.He uses celluclay, vermiculite, white glue and paint. I won’t give the mixture of amounts but it sounds very easy and looks realistic in the photos. It is a great book with all kinds of neat little scenery gimmicks.
Nothing looks more like mud than real mud, so that’s what I use. I sift some dirt out of my back yard, mix it with casting plaster, and add nutmeg or cinnamon colored acrylic paint and a little white glue. I make my mixture watery and spread it with a 1-inch paint brush. I use the above-mentioned paint colors because that’s the basic color of local mud, so you need to change paint color according to what you want for the final outcome. The color will lighten as the mix dries, too, so don’t be too alarmed if you think you have it too dark.
IMHO nothing says “mud” like a deeply-rutted road, splatter all over the adjacent vegetation and a frustrated driver, fists on hips, glaring at his mired-to-the-axles Model T.
Ground goop, and the other mixtures and methods already described, will all give the appearance of mud. I leave the vehicle and driver as an exercise for the student.
Chuck (most of whose roads will be mud - just like the prototype)