Foster, good eye, yes that is tan around the vision ports. The mold for the cupola was not very good and instead of fixing it, I just put it together as best I could. Apparently this lead to some visible plastic after I painted it. Thanks for pointing it out, I will have a look and see what I can do.
Julian, The mud was a mixture of white glue, Tamiya acrylic paint, fine sand, and some frayed twine that I cut into small pieces. I mixed the paint color I wanted for the mud, and painted the model where the mud would go. Then flicked some paint on with a brush. Finally I added the white glue, sand and twine to the paint and applied the mess to the model.
William, To take pictures I use two desk lamps, a variable ceiling light, a regular table lamp, and one of those tall floor lamps with three directional light bulbs. I have found that using a mixture of regular and fluorescent light bulbs works best and the lights don’t have to necessarily be pointed directly at the model. I don’t always use all the lights described above at one time, but I play around with the lighting arrangement to get rid of most of the deep shadows that the camera will see. I also use a tripod for my camera. This eliminates a lot of blur from a moving camera. Until I found the tripod, I used to set my camera on books to keep it steady. I know it sounds like I spent a lot on lighting and a tripod, but I found the tripod in the basement and the most I spent (besides the camera) was about $2 for several poster boards and perhaps another $1 for the slate tile that I like to set my models on for pictures. The lights are just scavenged from around the house. Good luck and let me know if you have questions, or if you need clarification.
Thanks for the comments guys!