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For the ground work, I used railroad model dirt for texture. I wanted something that showed distressed earth, not fine as sand but not too chunky either.
I sat the base in a bowl then spread dilluted white glue to the base. Then sprinkled the "dirt" onto the base. The bowl caught any overflow.
I let the base dry then primed and painted pretty much the entire base black.
The figure observing the scene was built in my usual way. Wire armature built up with Aves putty. The body
then scored while 75% cured with cross type of etching
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. This will help successive layers of putty "bite" into the flesh.
For mud, I was hoping to use Testors Green Putty to texture the boots and other areas of the model. But to my dismay, the tube was all dried up. I came up with an idea to try and use Aves. I mixed a small batch and saturated the mixture with water and mixed almost into a paste. I added a little Vallejo dark green paint to help see the texture. I then stippled the mix onto the figures with an old brush. The process worked o.k. but I had to work fast as the paint helped dry the mix too quick.