Modeling Dirt and Mud at Bottleneck Creek..Still trying stuff on the test diorama..

Back to testing ideas for Bottleneck Creek. This week trying several products and ideas for modeling Bottleneck Creek's grass, dirt, mud, and water.

This week we tested several products that people have recommended for modeling our creek and layout. First up: Golden Pastel Ground Textured Acrylic Primer $18.54 on Amazon. Our friend Steve Strebel put us onto it. He uses it for several uses including stone buildings so we will be getting back to it when we build the engine shop. Expensive, but a great product. We tried mixing it with acrylic paint to add color, which worked great and even adding dirt to make a supper real dirt texture. And just plain which drys clear but adds a sandy texture and makes a GREAT primer over a "pink foam" modeling base. If the price seems high, and it is, Steve said he has made a similar product by mixing very fine sand with matte Mod Podge.

Next up: Sculptamold. Seems just like CelluClay which we have been using for years. We added color. BIG difference! While the two products mix the same, work the same, and are mostly the same, Sculptamold has about a 10 to 15 minute working time! And sets in about an hour. CelluClay has about a 2 hour working time and sets in about 24 hours.

And speaking of CelluClay we used that again to make muddy dirt. Just as we did on the road crossing a few weeks ago. Check the playlist link at the end of the video...

And DIRT! This time gopher dirt. Caddyshack anyone? Anyway, Steve's yard has been destroyed by gophers. And just like Echo Canyon Squrel dirt, Steve's gophers have supplied us with about 30 pounds of rich dark modeling dirt! And nothing models dirt better than dirt!

And Karyn experimented with making tall grass and cattails. We have several ponds and swampy areas on the layout, so we added a pond with a rocky bottom and swamp full of cattails.

Ad on to pouring Woodland Scenics deep pour water. But that will need to wait for next week. OH! And the pencil logs are at this link:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B073GPSHWQ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1