SPA Modeler

Hullo! I’m excited to read about mapping at 7 am in the morning! I have been thinking about how to site the Bulldog up to its neck in mud, so thank you both for these thoughts. My somewhat or totally naive perspective is go bake the moisture out of Fuller’s Earth then add back a wet sheen with gel gloss medium. Since mud is the creation of an interference layer I figured the solution is to use real dirt... I did think about a solution here in somewhat the same direction, but a drier effect using light colored earth and matte medium...

I’m also assuming again totally naively that the mapping process is used for weathering effects as well, Torben.

Torben, the”mapping” concept is just a name to something that I have seen or used for many years. I personally just called it layering. I saw it for real on vehicles many times. A vehicle goes thru a muddy area and a layer of mud attaches itself. The vehicle keeps on going thru a dry area and the base layer of mud starts to dry out, usually the upper outermost areas first. Sometimes it may get to dry out completely. Then that same vehicle goes thru another muddy area, perhaps more quickly, and a new layer of built up wet mud is thrown on, then you’ll have a really distinct multi tone look. And again depending upon the time being depicted and how much mud exposure happens the drying out process starts again.

Regarding the Badger paints, they are just a bit too translucent for one coat coverage. At least this color is. I know that yellow paints are usually bad in this respect, and I suspect that this “mud” color is based off of a yellow pigment.

Bruce, there is so much that can be done from this technique and others that I’ve tried to get that muddy look. It sounds like you are trying to replicate that photo and will be including a base with some groundwork. There is a whole approach to that technique that can be done thru planning and materials to make the actual mud application “minimal”. A sort of VFX method for dioramas and vignette bases.

Thanks Bruce. I’m excited to be finally reaching this point. Nearing completion always feels good.

Congrats on getting close to finishing Carlos. This is amazing work already. I am always thrilled to watch someone with real life experience replicate something he has personally seen.

Thanks Mark. I only came up close to a Leopard once and it was just in the basic Olivgelb scheme in a non field situation. But yeah, I do love doing the stuff that I’ve seen for real.

Any progress on this one Carlos?

Little bits of progress. I’ve been doing some detail painting. Next up is some washes...

Wash on and cleaned up. I used oil paints for this...