Hi Dave,
I was drawn to respond to your thread before I read Richie's generous comments (and blushed)
.
As Einion said, there are many great alternatives to buying commercial weathering products, and one of the very best (and cheapest) is common garden dirt.
I use it all the time and when combined with paints, pastels and other forms of weathering, such as stains and washes, creates very realistic scale mud.
Typically I will include some dirt in my weathering mix along with some talcum powder for bulk and add white glue as a binding agent. I'll then add some acrylic paint or pastelchalk to ensure the right colour and water to dilute the glue and create a slightly runny muddy mixture.
I also make sure that the muddy mixture is the same colour and consistency as the ground work. Unless you do this, the finished figure will look wrong and will not match the groundwork.
Rather than just attack my figures randonly with mud, I carefully consider what parts of the uniform will come into contact with the ground first (bum, knees, elbows, stomach) and concentrate on those areas first. Then I look at splatter effects on the lower legs. For this I use an old toothbrush tipped in my mud mix and then I flick the bristles to create the splatter.
If you use water soluble and natural materials you can always wipe them off with a dry towel or cloth and start again.
The key is to experiment and keep your mind open to new ideas
