[?] Ideas for making dried Earth?

[Yggdrasil]

Hi.
I'm going to build a Death Valley like Old West gaming table. To get a little bit of variety I want to make some dryed out lakes and rivers. But i don't know how to achieve this.
I know that there is some kind of "dead Earth" paste (i think Ziterdes is selling it) but it would be very expensive to use this stuff for a whole gaming table.

Therefore I'm wondering if there isn't a cheaper method to produce dried Earth like this one:


Has anyone got ideas how to gproduce this effecet?

greetings
Andi

[Dr. Zombie]

Most arts and crafts stores sell cracking paint or a cracking medium. Some years ago it was very "en vouge" to paint furniture with it to get the authentic vintage look...

[Roebeast45]

You might try PVA glue like in this tutorial. She suggests using long strokes but I think stippling the paint layer on might work better.

http://makethebestofthings.blogspot.com/2010/05/crackle-finish-with-elmers-glue.html

[beefcake]

Funnily enough I created something like this a few days ago with plaster. It's probably a weighty option and adds a lot of thickness to the board as well. But all you need to to is cover your area (boxed) with plaster, add a little less than the required water amount, don't stir at all and it creates a dried lakebed effect. Probably way to much stuffing around though and you would need to experiment a bit I imagine.

[Johnno]

Terranscapes has YouTube videos, one of which uses Kroma Krackle. Looks interesting

[Dewbakuk]

Terranscapes has YouTube videos, one of which uses Kroma Krackle. Looks interesting

Link? For those of us too lazy and mildly curious to go find it ourselves 

[bbtoys333]

It seems that there should be many ways to do it. Lightly spreading (quite watered down) ordinary clay or Das Klay on should work just fine as cracks would just appear naturally with drying without the aid of a crackle agent.

But since this step involves letting a wet ingredient dry it would be important to seal/waterproof the surface beforehand to prevent the underlayment (if porous like mdf) from absorbing all that liquid and warping.

[AndrewBeasley]

You can get spray paints in sets of two that will cover large areas - plastikote have a dark and light brown.

If you are using acrylics, then you can get a single coat paint that you can use - the thicker the coat, the bigger the block between the cracks.

[zizi666]

Probably not suitable for your needs, but I once made a dried earth base for a Warmachine mini by cutting styrene in a crackled pattern.
Depending on the size you want to cover, you could use cardboard. cover it with dilluted PVA and sand or sawdust et presto. dirt cheap, but probably time consuming on a large surface.

[verd]

You make me think in two Massive Voodoo's tutorials I read time ago:

http://massivevoodoo.blogspot.com.es/2009/11/tutorial-making-base-with-dry-desert.html

http://massivevoodoo.blogspot.com.es/2011/06/earth-dry-soil-effect.html

Not sure if that will be useful for you, but... well, the results look great!! 

[Centaur_Seducer]

Filler (for the bulk and mass), pva (to utilize its shrinking abilities) and some paint so you don't have to swear for ever ehen you try to paint that so-hard-to-reach spot
Slab on the mix, wait an hour or so (this depends on the materials and temperature/humidity). When the top layer has started to dry (but not at all being stiff, just a bit less stickier than when you made the mix, use a brush and stipple the patterns out. Wait a bit, and then gently use a very wet paper towel to level and even the small mounds you've created with the brush. Leave it to dry, and you should have a fractured and dried up base.

[Dan]

How about getting some cork tiles and breaking them up, and then glueing them together leaving cracks. I'm not sure how you would cover the straight edges other than crumbling them to an irregular shape or adding rocks etc.

[HerbyF]

If you paint acrylic over white glue or enamel you get a crackle finish too.

[Andrew May]

I've never seen a textured wall paper with a crackle effect but one might exist, a faux leather might work so long as the texture is open enough.

[Yggdrasil]

Hi all.
Thank You very much for Your Answers and the splendid support. There are a bunch of very interesting ideas.
Now I need some time to read and try out the instructions of the different methods.