WINTER-AUTUMN GROUND PIGMENT SET

Soil outside the summer season

Most pigment sets aim at dry summer dust. This one goes elsewhere: it is made up of the tones the ground takes on in autumn and winter, that is when the soil is soaked, darkened and clings to everything it touches. The difference shows mainly on the lower part of a machine, on the fenders and on the footwear of figures, where wet earth builds a solid deposit instead of a drifting cloud.

Inside lie a fixer fluid and four powders: dark soil from the fields, dark city grime, cold winter ground and industrial dirt from a factory yard. The field tone suits a rural scene with a muddy track, the city grime belongs with paving and the rubble of buildings, the winter ground brings a cold bluish cast and the factory dirt suits stations, depots and repair yards.

The presence of a fixer makes the set a closed whole. The powder is first applied dry and worked in, then set with a drop of the fluid, and once dry it stays in place even when the model is handled. If you want a heavier deposit, you can repeat the process and build up a real layer of mud with depth.

The cold tones bring one more advantage that tends to be forgotten: they make a contrast for warm rust. If you have already put corrosion on a machine, it will sit more convincingly in soaked earth than in dry dust, because moisture and rust go hand in hand in nature. It pays to alternate the two steps in small doses and not to finish one before the other has even begun.

Watch the amount on vertical surfaces. In reality the autumn material clings mainly low down and in the corners, while higher up it appears only where a wheel or a track link has flung it. A few well aimed splashes therefore look better than a continuous veil across the whole side.