Reply To: Mud Walls

[Rhoderic]

I’ve experimented a lot with this kind of stuff, but I’d say my go-to method continues to be my first. DIY store wall filler (of the finer-grain variety) over foamcore (or thick cardboard or whatever), dabbed with a slightly moist sponge to texture it grainy and then gently pressed with my thumb or knuckles to make the texture softer and rounder while maintaining a hint of that graininess achieved by the sponge-dabbing. It still gets a bit more grainy again once it’s dried – and some of that graininess may of course be lost again once you paint over it. Thus, once you’ve got a feel for it, you can easily “modulate” the degree of graininess using various texturing techniques (like dabbing with different materials of different degrees of dryness or moistness) and softening excess graininess afterwards with extra layers of paint or PVA.

If you’re up for experimenting before modelling your final piece, try what I described above a number of times with varying amounts of PVA glue mixed in with the wall filler. With large amounts of PVA mixed in, the filler will crack when it dries. I promise nothing, but with just the right mix you may be able to achieve a subtle sort of cracking as of mud render that’s dried too fast under the hot sun. The PVA will also result in the dried mix having a softer texture than straight wall filler.

Really, mud walls and the like are some of the most fun elements of scratchbuilding terrain. There are countless ways to do it, hence my various experiments. Another one I’ve been playing around with after learning of it on LAF is using a mix of PVA glue and talc (the real microsilicate stuff, not the substitute talcum powders made from cornstarch or similar due to health concerns).

But if you just want to get on with it then just pick one method, or improvise one yourself using your instincts: Volume and texture are the two things you’re after. Plenty of materials will give you volume, though of course some may have other drawbacks (weight, labour-intensiveness, etc). For texture, you first need to get a feel for what degree of graininess the material will attain on its own once it’s dry, and then you can fall back on the various ways of modulating it before it’s dried (dabbing, pressing down, etc) and/or after (painting, sanding, etc).