I am making a new model base for someone and I need some help or advice, have any of you ever made dried mud? I have been working on this for about a week now and I am only OK with the results. It is a good look but I can't make the cracking small enough for the scale that I need. I use 1:22 so for my dioramas it would be perfect, but the base I am making is supposed to be 1:32 and it is just way too big. Here is what I have so far,


As I mentioned, this would be perfect if it was for my dio's but the cracking and the pieces are too big for smaller scales. I have tried several different things, first I tried such a thin layer of the mud that when it dries the cracks are tiny. that worked but it was so thin that it doesn't show up very well, even when painted. I have tried a second coat of mud over the larger cracks and this layer was also applied thin but again the cracks don't show up. I used a hobby knife to cut cracks into the larger pieces, breaking them up but all that did was to crumble the mud which separated from the glue. Finally I tried to paint cracks into the larger pieces, which looked terrible.

Any ideas or thoughts? All comments or suggestions could be helpful as I sometimes get ideas from something totally unrelated to what I am trying to make.

try laying a thin mesh over the area. apply a thin layer of mud. Allow to be nearly dry and remove the mesh.

That was a thought I had but it comes out too regular, it did however create a perfect pattern for domestic date palm trunks, another idea that ended up being useful but not for the original project. Thanks for the thought and the reply,
Phil

Hi Phil
What did you actually use as a medium here? I have attempted with plaster of paris with some success in the past, and it at least got me the size I was looking for. Desert creek bed style.
Brad

I haven't done this so it's theoretical. I would pour a sheet of thin plaster on to a sheet cut from a plastic bag.When dry turn it over with the plastic still attached. brush some pva glue onto your base where you want the cracked mud and then place the plaster face down on the glue. Roll something over the plastic to crack the plaster. This action should release the plastic bag from the plaster but if no just wait til the glue dries..

It should work

I think this is similar to the other ideas, but you could use a slightly flexible base and put a thin coat down then when dried flat, just twist the base a very small amount. Leave it right on the base.

Or

Get a medium that can be put in the oven and try to 'bake' cracks into. This one is way out there on ideas. It just came up as I was typing above.

You mentioned using a knife, did you actually cut all the cracks in? I was thinking of using an etching/dental style tool and scribing all the lines in.

Thanks everyone for you different ideas, to answer questions about some of the ideas I actually tried most of them. Exer, the plaster upside down and pushed onto the glue just made a huge mess, the plaster just broke apart and never stuck well to the glue. Where it did stick it didn't stay in the pattern, it was more like rubble then dried mud.

Slodder, your idea I thought would be the best, and it did work but the cracking was so large it really didn't look right once there were figures added to it so you had a reference as to the size of the cracking mud.

Brad, I am not sure what your final idea is, I love the desert and spend a lot of time there and dried riverbeds don't crack like that, they are smooth sand running parallel to the course of the water. This pattern happens when water is sitting still and as it evaporates the surface of the mud dries quicker then the underground where the mud is still wet, causing the upper dirt to warp.

With that said, what I used is a mix of plaster, silicon and PVA glue. Once it set I added the cracks and when it was dry I painted the whole thing, first dark inside and along the cracks and then lighter over the whole base. But don't do it this way, yesterday i found a product called Textured Crackle by DecoArt and I put some on a piece of cardboard, here is the result.


This came out so much smoother and except for the color (it comes in two colors, this one and white) I can't really tell the difference but this is so easy to use, I just spread it on the cardboard and let it dry.

I made it happen accidentally.
Using Fimo modeling clay/putty I pushed a thin layer onto the base with my thumb to give the ground that 'mashed up' look and then thought it would be clever to dry it with a hairdryer set on high temperature