need help

i beleave the easiest way to make mudisto simply add the dirt u want withwhiteglue and maybe abit of water but not verry much then simply spread it along were its needed theres no colouring nessasary

I tried to paste a spreed sheet into this post & it was a disaster. If you send me your email address I will send you the equivalents in 1/35th scale broken down into 64th incraments. For starters Roughly 3/8" = 1' in 1/35th scale its actually 0.36" = 1'
Happy Modeling
Antagonist

Wallboard compound (drywall compound or spackling mud) makes a nice sacle "plaster" or concrete. Its easy to work, adheres well and doesn't shrink when it dries. (Also very inexpensive) It tools well and can be painted, sanded, and in some instances will make good mud, rubbles, water, etc. depending on how you paint it.

For mud I use white glue, plaster, paint (the color of my mud) and very fine sand and or dust. A stiff paintbrush or a ver controlled "flick" of the thumb on a toothbrush and you'll get great splattering and build up under wheel wells, back of soldiers on bikes, etc. Splatter where needed... Celuclay also makes good "chunky mud" like Russia in the spring... ahhhhhh Russia in the spring, the mud, the flies, the partisans (sigh).

I use foam core like warren and also a product called gator board. Rather than foam center it has an encapsulated cell and it makes it a little stiffer.
I aslo use luan or doorskin which is really just a thin plywood. 1/8"-1/4" thick. The 1/4" works out perfect for wall thicknesses on houses for 1/35 scale. Anything bigger like medieval ruins, large commercial buildings etc, I use a thicker ply of plywood or manufacture my own wall material from a combination of meterials to get the desired thickness.

A good method of making brick walls is to lay your wall flat (prior to assembly) and coat it with wall board compound. Once it starts to dry, lay a straight edge on it horizontaly and run a scribing tool along it to make your mortar lines. I use a rounded tip of different size nails, key stock, plastic swizzle sticks, pieces of scrap wood etc, dependent on the size and texture of the mortar line you want and frankly, whatever works. Once I have my courses scrobed in, I then go back and make the edes of the bricks. This way you can off set them, line them up, make patterns, etc. Once dry, you can paint and assemble your walls. Then you can touch up seams with more wall compound or make decoractive edging to present decorative brickwork like you see on the edges of urban buildings, to go over and disguise your seams.

Kitty litter works good for rubble and I've also taken plaster and poured it into a tray about 1/4" maybe 1/8" thick. Again, as this sets up you score it like you would the wall compound and make some deeper lines this time in the proportion of your bricks. Then place the whole thing in a bag, go outside and drop it in your driveway a few times. Instant bag-o-rubble that you can paint and add. Not only do you get single bricks but wall sections as well. Sure its a little work up front, but go out and price some fo the rubble that is commercial available.... Time to modelers is cheap. If you separate out your single bricks and put them in a bag and shake them up you will get some nice worn bricks to go along with your crisper edged bricks. Nice project between builds to fill out the down time.

Cassi's suggestion for kitty litter is A#1. Been using it for years and have always liked it for ground material and rubble. In a pinch I'll even grind it up to get some fine dust. Afterall, the cheaper kitty litter is really only clay.

good luck
Mike

thank you for all the help guys the tips are really helpful this weekend i'll be going to the craft store thakyou again

matt

Will is right on both counts. Mud can be made a lot of ways and Shep's book is amazing.

to the forum

I would suggest buying Shep Paine's book: How to build Dioramas. This book is immensely useful for beginners like me.

As for the mud I use a combination of white glue flour and brownish acrylic paint it works well for me.

to the FSM forum!

The advice given above is very useful and throughout,and I'm sure you'll find plenty in there to work with.
For the few walls I've built, I got an idea from White Dwarf (the magazine catering to warhammer fans). They used insulation foam (pink stuff you see around house construction sites) Anyways, they used this, and carved out a rough brick pattern. I tried this and it worked fairly well.
After you carve out a rough brick pattern, use a large-grain sanding stick or paper to scruff up the surface of the 'bricks'
After that, I painted white school glue over the whole thing to protect the foam from paint and plaster to be used on it. Anyways, after the glue had dried, I mixed some plaster, but thinned it quite a bit, till I could paint it on. When the plaster had completey dried, I simply took a dark red colour and heavily drubrushed the whole thing, then lightened the tone, drybrushed some more, lightened again, and finally dry-brushed a final layer. This way, all the recesses between the 'bricks' stayed off white, while the 'bricks' picked up the colour. The end result was very convincing.

There is an article in the latest issue of TMMI where the author used this drybrushing technique to paint a wall for a Normandy dio.

QUOTE: Originally posted by mraustin Cassbill i was left a little confused with the L-shaped paper clips is this used to give strength to the card board sorta like rebar in cement? and finally how do i make mud and apply it to the tank thank you again for the tips i really appreciate the reply and i fear this will not be the last you hear from me thanks again. matt

Rebar is a good comparison. They act like the L brackets used to hand shelves but turned sideways. They can also help you check the allignment before you glue the corners, like locating pins on a kit. How to make mud varies by what you want to put it on. When I wanted footprints in mud for a diorama, I used joint conpound(thick, speadable plaster), mixed paint the right shade (preferably an acrylic since the plaster has water in it), mixed the two to color the plaster and spead it on. I then pressed the boots of a figure in it. When it dried, I sprinkled railroad dirt on it.( colored the same as the plaster.) and coated it with a gloss. Since the surface isn't smooth it just looked wet. Colored railroad dirt or even garden soil, mixed with glue can used to put mud on the tank, make mud splatters on the walls and the soldiers boots. If the bottoms of the soldier's boots can be seen, mud on the soles is a nice effect. The diorama I did this with has the guy kneeling so I put it on the boots and his knees. If the scene is guys running the mud would be kicked up, more weight would be one the toes of a footprint(toes deeper then heel) and imagine the arch the legs would make while running. Mud would fly in that arch and the guy behind him would have splatters on his pants for he were close enough.
Warren mentioned fish gravel for rubble and stones, kitty litter works too and is a dusty color to start with.
More ?s, just send 'em our way.

Think about it this way, one inch in real life equals 35 inches on the model
1=35
1/35
get it?

I'm not sure exactly how to scale the buildings for 1/35th (I build in 1/72 scale), but you shouldn't have too much trouble going off measurements from a 1/35 scale figure. See how tall the figure is then scale the buildings accordingly, make the windows and doorways the right height for a 1/35 scale person to use...that sort of thing.

If you want to get into a stone or brick building you're looking at making the build process more complicated. I've still experimenting with those sorts of buildings myself, so I don't really have any answers for you on that one at the moment. My suggestion would be to start out simple and add complexity as you get better, but then that's just me

For mud on tracks you'll have to ask someone else, again, I'm still trying to get a handle on that technique too

hey thanks for the tips Warren & Cassbill they sound fairly simple. A couple of questions how does the scale work so the building doesnot dwarf or tower over the model? and when i have rough assembled the building how do i make the walls either look like brick or rock and Cassbill i was left a little confused with the L-shaped paper clips is this used to give strength to the card board sorta like rebar in cement? and finally how do i make mud and apply it to the tank thank you again for the tips i really appreciate the reply and i fear this will not be the last you hear from me thanks again.

matt

Welcome to the forum
If you want to work with plaster apply a thin layer to a light material(cardbord, balsa, plastic(roughened)). Then you can scupt the plaster's dings and chips but the structure would be lighter. pinning the corner would help. If you use cardboard try lengths of paper clips bent in L's. Let it dry good and settle. then a thin layer of plaster would be applied. Use thin coats. The water has to dry out and balsa and cardboard will absorb it. Cardboard will turn in to mush with too much.

No worries mraustin, we all had to start out somewhere

For the building...I've had good success with using foamcore as the base for the walls (it's the sandwiched foam you mentioned). Foamcore is cheap and easy to find in any art supply store and most hobby stores, plus, it's really easy to work with. First off, decide on how big you want your house to be and make up some templates for the various walls, include any rough damage you'd like (such as half destroyed walls and whatnot) and windows and doorways. Given that it's your first try I'd suggest keeping things simple, or make some test buildings to practice first. Once you've got the templates trace them onto the foamcore and cut the pices out with a sharp hobby knife. You should change the blades pretty regularly, I'm not sure what it is about foamcore but it seems to dull blades quite quickly.

Once you've got the wall sections cut out you can start top assemble them on the base you've chosen for your diorama. Be sure that you've planned out where the various elements of your diorama go before hand, there's nothing worse than running out of space halfway through construction For putting the pieces together I use regular white glue, and for tricky bits you can push toothpicks through the corners to help hold them together while the glue sets. Once everything is set you can rough up the edges around damaged portions of the building, I use one of the sanding heads on my dremel for this.

When you're happy with the overall layout of the house you can give it some 'depth' by applying a very light coating of plaster or poly-filler, something like that to the walls. This covers up any little nicks or toothpick holes there might be and gives the building a more realistic feel than the perfectly flat surface of the foamcore.

Once you've done all of that you can add as many little bits and pieces to bring the house to life as you feel comfortable with. For example...I make window frames out of wooden match sticks, doors out of tine strips of balsa wood, hardwood floors out of popsicle sticks, rubble inside and outside the building out of fish gravle, roofs out of wood and cardboard. At this stage it's totally up to you.

There are a lot of other ways to make buildings, but I've found this way to be the easiest, plus it's got the flexability that as you gain confidence you can make as many additions as you want.

Anyways, I hope that helps
Warren