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Does anyone have any tips for doing a good sloppy mud base? I am thinking of doing a Cygnar Trencher army and would like the bases to look like churned trench mud.

Thanx

Make the bais form out of Green Stuff or some other putty. Then smother it in PVA glue to slicken the surface. Add a few small rocks in it. Paint a super dark brown or grey. When you paint it use a varnish. That might just work.

the other thing to try is "mud" or spackling compound like you'd fill cracks in plaster or the spaces between dry wall cheap and it can definitely dry looking ilke a sloppy mess

Wood putty.

It works PERFECTLY.

I used to use it myself, back in the day.

If you add a little water to it to thin it out, it'll work even better.

Eric

I just did a series of these with green stuff, if I have time later in the week I'll try to get some decent photos. Anyway, my technique was something like this:

- Roll green stuff into a ball, them smush it flat onto a 60mm base.
- Clean excess green stuff from the edges, and then use a wet fingertip followed by a wet paper towel (use Brawny or shop towels that won't fall apart and leave lint behind) to smooth out the fingerprints.
- Push the model's feet down into the green stuff to leave a good impression. Pull the model back out, set it aside. You may want to lay them in a row with the drying bases next to them so you don't have to worry about what feet fit what base later.
- Use sculpting tools to gouge the mud into whatever muddy shape you want. If you have the model stepping up onto a rise, punch bullet holes into it This is also a good time to add any extra junk (rocks, heads, arms) that you want to jam into the mud.
- Paint with a dark brown (I use Gamblin burnt umber liquid acrylic?it's not model paint)
- Coat the whole thing with a Brown/Chestnut wash - I use Reaper Flesh wash.
- Drybrush on lighter shades of red and brown to get a good muddy color. In between coats, apply more coats of Chestnut wash, focusing on recesses.
- Finish off by applying thinned black ink to the deep cracks/crevices.

Make sure that the mud color works with the model paint jobs?you probably don't want red clay colors clashing with Dark Angels green, etc.