Review - Masterclass Scenics: Mud & Water Bundle - Secret Weapon Miniatures

I think, like many modelers, I have a tendency to buy something, get it, oh and ah over it and then stick it in a drawer and forget about it. Well as I finished up my WWI US Marines I was thinking about how to base them and I remembered that I had ordered the Masterclass: Mud and Water Bundle from Secret Weapon Miniatures. It comes with three jars of pigments; Dark Earth, Terracotta Earth and Clay Brown, a bottle of Woodland Scenics Realistic Water, a small ziplock of plaster and a small ziplock of finely ground sand. I compared the pigments to my selection of MIG Pigments and quite frankly they look about the same to me. Its just hard to tell what brand is more finely ground. Everything you can do with MIG and AK Interactive pigments you should be able to do with the Secret Weapon pigments. So there is another tool for your arsenal and they are $1 cheaper and come in the same 20ml quantity. The instructions were pretty brief however if you have made mud before for modeling then the process is the same, you are just adding volume with the plaster instead of acrylic resin. The addition of the Woodland Scenics Realistic Water to the mixture though adds a nice touch to the dry mud and it can be used to fill those small hollows in the base where water may have collected. The instructions do refer you to his tutorial on the website which is quite well done and comes with pictures and a step by step guide on how to make and apply the mud to achieve the best affect. I'm pretty pleased with my bases although they came out a bit redder than I anticipated. What you are really getting is everything you need to make mud in one package and an alternative source of weathering pigments. I think its a pretty darn good deal. Justin has a number of other kits on the Secret Weapon Miniatures site along with various tutorials so its pretty hard to go wrong. You can find these at some stores like Total Escape Games here in Colorado and of course on his website (although he does encourage you to support your local retailer). I have his site listed in my links but here is the link again; Secret Weapon Miniatures
Here is a picture I swiped from the Secret Weapon site showing a base created with the Mud and Water bundle.