How to do mud?

[Mack]

I'm building a votoms mecha and I was wondering what would be a method of creating mud, like it had been splashed on as it was using it's wheeled ground effect system.

I was thinking that mixing some brown paint with real dirt might be the way to go. Any other suggestions on making realistic looking mud?

[karim]

Paint + Talcum Powder

or

Paint + Baking Soda

[Mack]

Ok thanks I'll give that a try.

[Kylwell]

You can also try Paint+HobbyLite filler filler if you need some thick stuff.

[Romulan Spy]

Dip an old toothbrush in your paint/mud mixture then drag your thumb across the bristles. Kinda messy and worth practicing on an old model, but it does a good job of simulating splattered mud.

[HWR MKII]

Wall spackle mixed with a little water and mud color. Slap it on with a brush and let it dry.

[Owen E Oulton]

Or, if it's just supposed to be very thin wet stuff that's splashed onto the bodywork, do a wet wash of thin tan or brown paint of the appropriate shade and slop it onto the bottom third of the body work. Allow it to dry, then use the toothbrush spatter technique with the same shade of unthinned paint behind wheelwells/above tracks and up the rear end. This is more common on road vehicles than the huge clumps o' mud you'd see on off-road vehicles.

One other thing that many modellers overdo - you'll generally only see huge clods of wet mud on military vehicles, rarely dry. Military crews will usually remove large clumps as soon as possible for three very good reasons - 1) mud is heavy and increases fuel comsumption; 2) it's easier to scrape off before it dries; and 3) Sarge will yell at them and threaten to place his size 13's in inconvenient parts of their anatomy if they don't!

[macfrank]

One other thing that many modellers overdo - you'll generally only see huge clods of wet mud on military vehicles, rarely dry. Military crews will usually remove large clumps as soon as possible for three very good reasons - 1) mud is heavy and increases fuel comsumption; 2) it's easier to scrape off before it dries; and 3) Sarge will yell at them and threaten to place his size 13's in inconvenient parts of their anatomy if they don't!

When I built a Tamiya T-62 tank, I slopped on a ton of mud, but later removed some of it because I didn't think a tank crew would allow that much crap to accumulate on the treads and wheels.

Not a month later, I was watching the news and they had a short snippet about some armed disagreement somewhere in the former USSR. One scene showed a T-something rolling down a street, and it had waaay more mud on its running gear than I had originally slapped onto my model!

So I guess it depends. If the crew is well trained, they probably try to keep their vehicle clean, when not being shot at. If they're just conscripts who just want to make it to the next week... they may not care as much (unless threatened, of course) "Sorry sarge, we threw a track and we can't be point today"

[Mack]

Well I tried the baking soda and that produces a nice thick mud but I found that simply drybrushing with Tamiya paints produces a clumpy look that I think is more suitable for this model.

I normally drybrush with poly s paints, but in this case tamiya worked out better.