please help with mud and water FX?

[Coyotebreaks]

So on my current model I have decided to try and take my basing techniques beyond the bit of calk and a dry brush that they are now. and want to try and make a muddy river bank.

so im wondering if anyone can tell me how to make mud, and a bit of river. also where can I get some river bank type foliage from

cheers for any help.

 

[Zab]

heavy gloss gel with give you the texture for a turbulent river. or some still water fora calmer one. mix some pigments or paint wall spackle with water fx to make the mud and give it a layer of gloss. there are many other techniques. I'm sure others will be a long ina few minutes to share...

 

[bullfrog]

I usually do military armour and deal with mud etc. one of two ways depending on what I feel like on the day and my finances. One way is to use actual mud from my backyard. It works and many military modellers use such a method. Either mix the dry dirt up with plaster and a little water and paint it with gloss varnish when dry. Or you could use a bought product like MIG's pigment resin. Mix it up with plaster and add paint and/or pigments to desired colour. It will dry glossy. Tamiya and a few other military modelling companies make a product that you can apply straight from the bottle. I don't know if you need to varnish afterwards for a wet shine as I've never used this myself. Vallejo make an acrylic version of mud in a pot too. I think AK Interactive and MIg AMMO also make similar products. Just search under military modelling diorama mud. If you use part dirt from your backyard or any other way including very small roots and bits can make it look very real.
The river....I'm probably not the best person for advice. If you search LukesAPS on you-Tube, he makes great tutorials on this kind of stuff.
I usually get my basing foliage material from Woodland Scenics. It's a train scenery material but it's perfect for anything foliage as you can get it in multiple grades of fineness and colour. My experience is that it tends to be cheaper than dedicated miniature diorama stuff. The same Luke'sAPS guy also does tutes on making your own scenery gear cheaply.

 

[MAXXxxx]

one small thing to add: if you use dirt from your yard, you should 'bake' it in an oven to get rid of germs/bugs/etc as much as possible.

bullfrog:
thank for the LukesAPS tip, I though it's the same as "Luke Towan", but no.
Also it's worth seeing the Luke Towan videos. He does dioramas, self made tufts, trees, etc.

edit: ohh one more thing, can you show some links where I could learn more about military models? I'm still trying to figure out how to correctly assemble and paint a 1/72 plane with photo-etched parts. So far I have problems with assembly and panel lining after priming/preshading.

 

[bullfrog]

Photo etch on 1/72? Your eyesight must be better than mine MAXXxxx! If you are having trouble with photoetch Adam Wilder's Working with Photoetch is a good book. I think he deals mainly with 1/35th but it's great basic and advanced stuff. One thing that helped me was the type of super glue I used. I found the Bob Smith Industries IC GEL fantastic to work with and hold better than any other glue I've used. The Weathering Magazine has decent advice regarding plane paintjobs if you ever want to buy something related to finishing them off. I get mine as an online download. I also found I had much better results when using dedicated folding machines too.
I will look up my usual go to sites in the am and get back to you on the links. In the meantime I usually use the articles and forums on Armorama, Military Modelling and FineScale Modeller. All three deal with both armour and air.

For panel lines I've found the best way for me is to spray my work with Gloss varnish and use diluted oil paint to flow into the lines. I then used a cotton bud very lightly wetted with thinner for clean up if needed. Finally hit your plane with a Matt spray. Sounds like a lot of work but it's worth it. Both AK Interactive and MigAMMO make products for panel lines specifically but they are really nothing more than enamels thinned down.

I will look up the Luke Towan stuff as I'm not sure if I've seen it so thanks for the idea.

 

[MAXXxxx]

soo looked at quite a few vids from LukesAPS. They are mediocre at best, a few times it was painful to watch/listen to the 'advice'.
can't really recommend to anyone.