Ready to start base scenery. Question about methods....and how to make "mud"

[nsconductor]

I have a section of the layout that has the terrain sculpted and plaster cloth is down. What step do you guys take next? Some type of ground goop, paint the cloth and then apply glue and ground cover, etc


I will probably just paint the plaster cloth a base color, dark green or brown, depending on what the surface will be like. I'll have some muddy areas like a scrap yard, pulpwood yard, etc. too.....how would I go about doing that? I want it to look realistic and have tractor tire tracks in the mud, etc. Any recipes for something I can mix up to make it....or just use something like wall joint plaster with paint and sand?

 

[Scordicus]

Yup! Exactly that, cheap brown paint from home depot (or Wicks if your in the UK), unless of course you happen to have green earth where you live! lol.. Just remember that your recreating the world in miniature, so choose a colour that is close to the ground colour of the area that you are modelling, then continue with your chosen ground cover of flock over diluted PVA glue..

A word of caution when using mixed plaster.. It's heavy (a consideration if your layouts portable) and it cracks when it dries if you apply it too thick in one go, which is why we tend to use the thin plaster bandages for landscaping...

 

[Rotorranch]

When The Kid built his N scale layout, he went to the paint store with my wife to get base paint. Since he was modeling the Georgia, he grabbed a chunk of dried mud from the inner fender of her car, and took that in as a color sample! The paint store guy was a little weirded out, but mixed the perfect Georgia red clay color for the base coat of The Kid's layout.

Rotor

 

[NH Mike]

After the base of plaster cloth or paper towels dipped in hydrocal has dried I "paint" on a thin coat of Gypsolite or plaster. This fills any gauze mesh or seam overlaps. The plaster gives a smooth surface and the Gypsolite a grainy textured surface. The choice depends on what I want a particular area to look like. Then I paint over that with a tan or dirt color latex paint except where a paved road or other man made surface will go. Finally I add the ground cover like grasses and weeds and bushes using either Woodland Scenics or Scenic Express products. Rocks and rock or stone debris plus trees finish the landscape.

 

[Secondhandmodeler]

I used sculptamold over the areas that I used plaster cloth. I spread it on thin to give it a textured appearance. After that I painted it a tan/dirt color and added ground foam later. Sculptamold is kind of expensive but I like the versatility. Mix it thick to build up areas or mix it thin to add a little texture.

 

[nsconductor]

Thanks for all the replies! I'm gonna mix up a batch of goop (Celloclay and Mold A Scene plaster, mixed with some earth colored paint). I'll make a test batch and see how it turns out. If it works well, I'll spread that around to break up the flatness of the level ground. I need to get some more photos of the progress and post. Been a few months since I've even worked on the layout.....with Fall here, I've got the motivation again.

 

[kenw]

Mix the paint in when you make up the celluclay or sculptamold, it will make it tougher and the color will be thru out.

 

[NYW&B]

I have a section of the layout that has the terrain sculpted and plaster cloth is down. What step do you guys take next? Some type of ground goop, paint the cloth and then apply glue and ground cover, etc


I will probably just paint the plaster cloth a base color, dark green or brown, depending on what the surface will be like. I'll have some muddy areas like a scrap yard, pulpwood yard, etc. too.....how would I go about doing that? I want it to look realistic and have tractor tire tracks in the mud, etc. Any recipes for something I can mix up to make it....or just use something like wall joint plaster with paint and sand?

NSconductor, what particular approach a modeler follows in creating his layout's landscape generally depends on just how realistic and believable he wants it to appear.

Firstly, bare ground always has some texture to it. It's very rarely utterly flat and smooth. Nevertheless, it shouldn't have the sort of texture of bare or painted plaster cloth either. As others have indicated, an over-coating of some sort is pretty much required. Paint alone is not the best approach.

I personally like Sculptamold the most, mixing an appropriately colored paint in with the water during mixing to color it throughout. Application of the Sculptamold can be done in a variety of thicknesses, depending on the nature of the terrain to be represented, with a very thin coating rendering a highly realistic appearance for most barren/exposed terrains.

Either while still wet, or with a lightly glue-wetted surface after it has dried, the colored Sculptamold can be coated with very finely sifted real dirt with a few included tiny pebbles. This dramatically improves the base texture and realism of the final scenery. Atop that may be applied any choice of mixed ground foams, grass tuffs, etc. to a density the modeler desires. But leave some areas sparsely covered, or even barren, as this is what is often found in nature. See a scene from my layout below that generally illustrates my approach to scenicking.

NYW&B

 

[Oh5oh]

Thanks for all the replies! I'm gonna mix up a batch of goop (Celloclay and Mold A Scene plaster, mixed with some earth colored paint). I'll make a test batch and see how it turns out. If it works well, I'll spread that around to break up the flatness of the level ground.

What you'll find with that recipe is that you're going though a lot of paint (voice of experience talking here). The goop that seems to work best for me is equal parts Celluclay and fine vermiculite (get it in the garden center at a big box store), add some big glops of white glue, enough water to make it all mix, and enough latex paint to give a uniform color. Also add a capful of Lysol to kill microcritters. I use disposable plastic utensils to spread it like cake icing.