Bish
Now that is really really nice. The work on the Hummel is stunning and was a real pleasure to watch. And the base looks great as well. How did you get the look of the mud.
Hi Bish!
Thanks for keeping a look into the progress and final product. The mud is "black" earth fertilizer from local hardware store in garden department. Since for me it's basically too costly to buy already made stuff for dioramas, e.g. wet/dry mud from Mig or forest in a pot from reality in scale, since you cannot find this producst in the contry, S&H makes it very costly. Most of what I have in the shelve comes from trips I made to the USA, therefore, I have to constantly use things I can buy locally.
Look around your local craft store and hardware store, there are tons of very very cheap products to use, rubble, clay, sand, etc. The gardening area is also great, there are dozen of different type of soil products which come in large and small portions. I bought this "black" soil which will not turn gray or khaki when dried. It also has small pebbles, branches and grass. Perfect! setting for my dio. Here´s a similar pic of what I bought.
Also, you dont have to worry about chemicals the hobby stuff may have. Completely organic. It is also very cheap, this bag cost me around $3 USD and if you dont use it all, just pour into your garden, What a steal.
I have never understood why people put soil and then paint it with acrylics to make earth tones???... just use real soil. Again, there are dozen different types of soils and fertilizers, each one has different color, textures so you can mix them. I used white glue with water to put it on then a clear coat of varnish and if you want some areas to look wet, just use gloss varnish.
Sorry for the looooong explanation, but I think it's worth it.
My next trip to SC I will bring some of the soil, they have an amazing reddish clay color which I think would look awesome for a Abrahams, Bradley setting.
Thanks again!! very much!