Hello every one

I’m building a winter diorama and next thing to do it’s to make road mud, but I don’t really know how to do good/ realistic mud. And when I try it just look strange, does anyone have some suggestions that can help me?

If you can get your hands on MIG's FAQ (frequently asked questions on AFV modeling) that would help as there is a chapter dedicated to the subject on recreating realistic mud. Also, I use MIG acrylic resin and mix it with pigments and gloss varnish (I use Vallejo) and work in on with a old, stiff brush. You can add dry pigment to it as it is drying for more layered (depth) effects.

I am no representative of MIG, just love the stuff. Oh, yeah - the DVD's are fantastic for this subject if you can get one (maybe Amazon has them cheap?) it's like the book comes alive.

Hope this helps. Mud can look great when done well; when done bad, it looks, well, really and obviously...bad.

I second Felix's sentiments about the MIG products...... I love them. You could also use the Whiteglue/PVA method along with soapy water and pigments (or real dirt thats been sifted).

Chris

pigments wok well on vehicles, but for a dio this might not be practical. How big an area do ou need to make muddy? Personally i have never had much trouble using celluclay type products, or plaster. Then just paint and coat with future for really wet mud or matt varnish for damp mud. Adding static grass gives the impression of churned up turf.

I agree with Luke, if its specifically ground work you are after then another (and much less expensive) alternative to pigments would be more practical.

In my winter dioramas that have featured muddy and frozen roads I made the ground work mud from a mix of plaster, household filler, sand, grit, water and static flock all mixed together and painted onto the ground with a large old brush or a plastic fork. Once semi dry you can imprint surface details such as boot marks or tank tracks, and add extra texture by sprinkling on household filler powder to the wet surface. You can also texture with products like Vallejo pumice.

Once fully dry simply paint earth tones with an airbrush and give it a few coats of filters and some oil washes and you get a really good mud. You can also paint gloss varnish directly onto the dry surface for a wet look or use wet effects products like Vallejo Still water or the Woodland Scenics products.

I'd save the acrylic resin and pigments for vehicles, and for blending the vehicle into the terrain groundwork.

you could just put some water on dirt enough so it goes doughy then mould into position

I recently did a WWI trench dio that required a lot of mud. Best "cheap but effective" method I found for a heavily textured mud was to mix fine sand (from the model train section at your LHS) with PVA glue and a cheap sample pot of appropriately coloured house paint from the hardware store. For a more churned mud look (roads and craters), I added more PVA glue and less of the sifted sand, it gives a nice squelchy mud sort of finish. When semi-dry you can add track or foot prints and when completely dry add pools of ground water.

I stick with my old favorite, CelluClay, but as already stated, any household spackle or plaster mix works just as well for larger areas. You can mix plaster with acrylic or latex paint so you have a dark base color, with the added bonus that any chips you might experience later on don't show up as white. You can also mix in twigs, small stones, sand, etc., to get the effect you want.

As an aside, when I was a kid (chronologically speaking) we didn't have any of that stuff around the house. We did, however, have huge bottles of Elmer's glue. I would dig up some dirt from the backyard, sift it through an old window screen to get out the big bits, and mix it with water and a whopping dose of Elmer's glue. The resultant goop was easily spreadable and dried rock hard. Plus, it was already "dirt colored" and had all sorts of small gritty bits alreaded embedded in it. I won't say for sure that it looked 100% realistic, but I remember liking the result quite a bit back then.

-YL

Pardon me for butt-ing in but, would you guys post any of your "Mud Works"? I'm also building a winter dio. Just wanted to see the different effects of the different procedures.

Appreciate it a lot.

I second m3orm5's request!

And i'll third that

Bump. Any takers?

Here you go guys,
Here's a couple pictures of one of my first dioramas I did some thirty years ago. [ It's the only one that survived from that long ago] I used celluclay for the mud. Painted it dark earth color. Than used a really light colored gloss wood stain to get the wet look. [ I believe it was natural pine colored]




Have Fun
Kirk

nice dio. very funny