Chieftain Base With VMS Smart Mud XL

Today I decided to tackle the base work for the chieftain, probably not the best day to do it due to the high temperatures and humidity but I really wanted to do something at the bench. For the groundwork I went for VMS smart mud XL after my test run and encouraging results.

First I mixed equal quantities of resin and texture using a beaker to measure them out. The resin is easily cleaned out of any measuring device you want to use with water. I gave the mixture a good mixing to ensure both had blended together well. This was followed by about five drops of activator and more mixing. I found that about a minute of mixing would give you a good idea of how it was thickening up. The rule here is the more activator you add the thicker and stiffer the mixture will be.

More drops went in until the mix was quite stiff and the end of a paint brush would stand up in it. This was then spread over the base and left for about ten minutes. I then used a rough brush and stippled the surface to blend it all together and add some really nice texture to the mud. 

Normally you have about an hour to work the mud and add texture etc before it gets too stiff but today it certainly dried a lot quicker! Here you can see the very convincing soil texture you can achieve just with an old brush.

The next step was to add the vehicle and some tyre marks to the setting mud. VMS recommend brushing the tracks or wheels of your model with their universal weathering carrier which stops the mud sticking to the model when you press it into the base. This worked brilliantly and as the carrier evaporates on the tracks or wheels it doesn't harm the paintwork or previous weathering. 

Once that was sorted the base was set aside to cure which is all dependent on the thickness of the mud layer. I'll give this about two days to be sure. The groundwork looks very good and has a much better texture compared to plaster and sand/gravel. You could also add small stones, rocks or anything else as it would be easy to blend these in with the mud. For a mud field the result is excellent and by mixing different ratios of resin & texture you can get different effects from dry mud to very wet mud.

The smart mud comes in three different grades, fine, medium & course as well as five different colours. Here I used medium grade EU light earth warm tone. I would also recommend shaking the resin bottle before use as the colour will settle over time. I'm very pleased with the look of the base as it looks very realistic and it's very easy to apply and add effects. Below is a link to the VMS product page from their website which has loads of useful info.

SMART MUD XL INFO