Mike Posted May 28, 2023 Posted May 28, 2023 Quake Crackle Creator Textures Crackle base (A.MIG-2182), Old Blacktop (A.MIG-2183), Dry Season Clay (A.MIG-2186) AMMO of Mig Jiménez It’s no secret that things crack and break up with old age or due to droughts. Old roads, dried out wells, rivers or ponds, deserts – the list is endless. Creating those effects in miniature is difficult, but a task that’s about to get easier. This new range of pastes from AMMO gives you a selection of colours to make your diorama or basing projects that much easier, allowing you to create a surface that will crack up as it dries, with the cracks more pronounced the thicker the layer you apply. Each one arrives with 40ml of product in the clear plastic pot, with a white screw-cap that has a one-time security seal that you break on opening. Inside is a glutinous liquid, and you are advised to apply it with a spatula rather than a brush, because the particles will get into the bristles and ruin your brush in short order. I used a palette knife that I had on hand, choosing a tapered blade to make accessing the 21mm diameter neck of the pot a little easier. Once on your spatula, it is quite stable, and won’t drip off immediately, but hanging around probably isn’t all that wise, so apply it to your substrate as soon as you can, laying it on thicker if you want larger, deeper crack, or thinner if you want just a few smaller cracks where it’s deepest. It spreads easily, and doesn’t sag too much, so you can create textures and humps within the paste to add some variety in profile as well as the size of the cracks. It sets reasonably quickly, but the full effect isn’t achieved until it is fully dry in 24 hours. If you paint it on thinly, rather than apply a layer of 0.5mm or more, it’s likely that it might not crack unless you are applying it to an absorbent base. My bases for this experiment were credit card sized plastic sheets, which I scuffed up with a sanding stick to promote adhesion. The test above shows the pre-mixed shades, both of which were applied too thinly initially, so were re-coated more liberally to achieve the desired result. The cracking is random, deepest where the application was at its thickest, working particularly well on the Old Blacktop, which was laid very thickly. As well as the pre-mixed colours, there is also a Crackle Base, to which you can add your own colour from many brands of acrylic paint, although they’d prefer it if you used AMMO paints of course. You must bear in mind that the base is white, so any colour you add will become lighter as a result, so pick a darker shade than you need to counter this effect. In my testing of the base, I mixed up two batches in grey and red, which you can see above turned out lighter grey and a muted reddish pink once mixed. You can literally add whatever colour you like to the Base however, as long as it is a compatible acrylic. My test used two Citadel shades, as they were what was to hand, but test a small quantity if you plan on using other brands, just in case. Application is straight forward, and if you use a smaller spatula to place the paste with accuracy, accidents should be reduced. The cured paste can be pried off non-porous surfaces with the edge of a sharp blade, but if you notice it immediately during application, a cotton bud, followed by another dampened with water should remove any unwanted residue, as would an old brush that you’re not worried about ruining. Conclusion A useful tool for dioramas and bases, available in different shades as a first step for further work in breaking up the monotone colour for extra realism. Recommended. Crackle Base (A.MIG-2182) Old Blacktop (A.MIG-2183) Dry Season Clay (A.MIG-2186) Review sample courtesy of
RobL Posted May 29, 2023 Posted May 29, 2023 (edited) Looks very similar to Citadel "technical" paints which do the same thing, like Mordant Earth. A lot of people use it (and similar products) to make lava flow bases for figures... FYI - you say you scuffed the test pieces up, but have you tried these Mig one's on a gloss surface (either bare plastic or varnished)? If they're anything like GW's product (and Vallejo's) and all the other similar products, the cracking effect will be better on a gloss surface... Edited May 29, 2023 by RobL
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