Ola everyone

Lately I've been thinking of a method to achieve a realistic medium beaten ground surface. I'm thinking of a surface which has had a lot of rain, although has not been steped on, ridden on and so on. Over time it has went from soft, muddy ground to a beaten by rain and own movement surface. So it has some loose particles/sand in some places, but underneath it's not soft.
I want to use this on a base which will be partialy covered with longer dried out grass, so the ground will be visible here and there. The base also needs a path to a tower (which will be the center piece of this whole thing) and some rocks here and there.
Here's what I have (it's a small test piece):







Lighting was different on the first picture than on the other two, so the color came out a bit wierd, but it's all gray, cause it's plaster.

So any opinions/criticism would be great, as I want to move on and try it out on the original base, with the tower already glued in:)

If you like this I can describe the method or even make some photos for an SBS while working on the base.

Take care
and thanks,
dsc.

Hi Tom

How did you do it. Any chance of puting a 1/35 scale figure with it, to show its size.

Thanks
Ryally

Ola Paul

You can see this technique used on a larger model:

My last topic

It's basically 100% dental plaster. All you need to have is an uneven surface (or even, depends on what you want), a water sprinkler and a small strainer. You need to get the surface wet and sprinkle (use the strainer) some dental plaster onto the still wet surface. Wait a while and than press the surface with some syntethic wool or a sponge (so you don't leave finger prints). The more presure you use the more "beaten" the ground will look. Wait until it's dry and than wet the whole thing using the sprinkler. This will make the surface rock hard. You can also use more layers to build up an interesting ground imitation. Try it out on a smaller surface and practise. It's really easy and lets you produce a nice looking ground surface:)

Sadly I don't have any 1/35 figures to show scale. I can only say that the tower door is around 4,5cm high, so it should help you see the scale of the ground (although there are no HQ closeup pics, so it can be hard).

Hope this helps, if you have any more questions I will be happy to answer them.

Cheers,
dsc.

Hi Tom

Thanks for the reply, want is dental plaster is it plaster of Paris. If not what brand is it and where do I get it from, hardware store?

Thanks Ryally

Ola Paul


Oops sorry for the confusion, but I just reliased that I used normal plaster, which you can but at a hardware store.
Dental plaster is a special kind of plaster which is a bit different from plaster of paris or ordinary plaster. It's much harder when it dries and in contact with water it behaves different than normal plaster.
I first tested both dental and ordinary plaster but chose ordinary because it looked good and behaved the way I wanted it to.

So use normal plaster and again sorry for the confusion:)

Cheers,
dsc.

Good test piece. I think the technique should proove successfull on a full project.