Hey guys, once again another lame post over mud... lol :-) When I was mowing the lawn today I was thinking about my diorama. Ofcourse with my lawns being somewhat big i had alot of time. I was thinking mainly about mud. Ok my idea is:

Could I take Plaster of Paris, mix it with brown paint, twigs, grass, and other stuff slop it on my dio and then seal it with a gloss varnish?

My second idea:
Could I take real mud and slop it on there and seal it with gloss varnish?

One last thing is; I took blended turf (made by woodland scenics) and covered the whole diorama. Should I scrape off the turf before I put the mud on?
As you can see I have never done groundwork before and I am quite excited. If there are any other tips you guys can help me with, please do. Thanks alot

I think both techniques should work....I always make mud with Albastine.....don't know if it says anything to you, it's some kind of plaster (to fill holes in your wall)

I understand you want to add this mud to a dio you already covered with turf. As I don't know exactly what this turf is, I can't realy awnser your question, but if this layer "turf" isn't too thick, I think you can just cover it with a mudlayer made of plaster or something like that...

Hey, be sure to show us some pics of your first one! I

Grt

Howdy Tsunami,

I can identify with the "big lawn". I have a corner lot, so my front lawn is enormous. I keep promising myself to one day get a 'ride-on' mower.....

Anyway, to your question.
I haven't tried Plaster of Paris for this application, but I have tried regular household spackle in a small amount and it worked 'OK'....it just seemed to make me work for it in regards to adding the colourization. But it worked. The problem with something like PoP or spackle, is that using either in any quantity at all will conjure up the 'Cracks' God. Meaning, I've also used (and am using right now as a matter of fact) regular construction 'Mud', or Joint Compound to apply ground texture and the like. But, the 'Mud' dries at such a fast rate, and the water content within it is dissipated at such an excelerated ratio that cracks appear all over the surface. This can be reduced and almost controlled by misting water on the surface of your creation. But you have to do it at regular intervals, making the method itself rather time heavy...........
hth

Tread.

BTW.....using this natural 'cracking' of the joint compound has rendered some pretty impressive depictions of the cracked surface of a dried river bed in the past.........try it on a test plate. It only takes a few minutes to knife some out. Just let dry overnite and Voila!.....the results are kind of interesting.......

Ha, i seem to always do alot of thinking when moving the lawn, then i run onto a wall and end up having a large bruise on my groin. Anyway the plaster idea sounds good, also try wall plaster (spackle) mixed with paint and some grass (make sure grass is short enough.) Good luck and can't wait to see the dio!

Well fellas! It is drying right now. I had a huge problem. I tried the plaster of paris mixed it with paint. I ended up using all of every brown I had. It still looks almost purple. but i am hoping it will turn out brown when the paint dries. I am somewhat disapointed for now i have to write down all the browns i had and buy them again. But hopefully tomorrow it will look better. I also ran out of plaster of paris and ended up have only half the street done. Well I am going to keep on the posotive side and do anything I can to make this dio my first and best dio. Even if it goes past the deadline ( i already know im going to be late) i still have to paint 10+ figures and finish a halftrack + finish groundwork. I feel so bad. Hopefully my mud will look good. Well thanks for the comments guys.

I see you found out the hard way about trying to tint plaster of paris. The white colour of the P of P will always dilute the paint and tone it down. Your best bet is to purchase the large Poster Paints in either the dry form (powder) or in the paint form. Add this to your P of P to tint it. Once dry you can then paint it with an Airbrush or by paintbrush. HTH
cheers,
Bryan

Well luckily i thought quickly and easily removed all the mud. Tomorrow I up to start over with a new idea and get a better result. Tonight I am trying to study what I can do with my groundwork. If you have any good examples please post it here.

I use Rit dye to tint the plaster of paris I use to make mud. Normaly it's used to dye clothing but it works well to make a mud color. The stuff is about the same price as the paint but you get around 10 times as much. Once the stuff is slopped on and dried, I paint it the color I want and then give it a gloss coat to make a wet look.

My 1 1/2 cents worth:
Baking soda, paint, white glue. More soda, more lumps. Less and you get a slurry look. And no cracks. Hope this helps.

Art

Thanks for this tip, Art. I too have been looking into how to make mud. I was thinking of using spackle, but as someone mentioned here already, it can dry quickly before you are done playing with it.

Cheers,

BT

Ive used wall filla for yrs to make my mud I use craft acrylics to colour it and stop the white spots if you find it cracks use some washing up liquid acts as a platicizer(?) keeps it supple

I'm doing the same thing w/ Joint Comp. I wet mine down alot (almost like slurry) and spread it thin on foam (that's already close to the ground contors I want) I get almost no cracking. I paint after it 's dry and it takes color nicely . Just finishing my AAAO base, try to post to show you what I mean.

Tom

EDIT: This is it.