Finished this one off. A very simple setting, the mortar and the two figures amidst the mud of the trenches in 1916/17. The mortar is straight OOB, I scratchbuilt a wood plank base edged with metal (from lead foil) with a few bolts to hold the metal in place. Which of course you can't see as it is mostly covered in mud.
I built up the basic mud shape using VMS "Smart Mud". Although I don't often use commercial products like this, I did find it useful in building up the basic groundwork shape. It's easy to work, holds its shape well and allows you to build up contours without having to use polystyrene foam shapes. Dries rock solid overnight. Quite a useful product, although I would not leave it in its bare state. I covered it with a mix of pigments, white glue and soil of varying grades from my garden. The groundwork was painted with many layers of oil paints.
The only addition to the figures from my WIP thread was weathering and mud stains along with some pipe smoke for the chap with the pipe. It turned out quite well, always areas for improvement but overall I am pretty happy with it.
That's a pretty extreme close up at the end......
I built up the basic mud shape using VMS "Smart Mud". Although I don't often use commercial products like this, I did find it useful in building up the basic groundwork shape. It's easy to work, holds its shape well and allows you to build up contours without having to use polystyrene foam shapes. Dries rock solid overnight. Quite a useful product, although I would not leave it in its bare state. I covered it with a mix of pigments, white glue and soil of varying grades from my garden. The groundwork was painted with many layers of oil paints.
The only addition to the figures from my WIP thread was weathering and mud stains along with some pipe smoke for the chap with the pipe. It turned out quite well, always areas for improvement but overall I am pretty happy with it.
That's a pretty extreme close up at the end......
