![](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_KOfEGJ_pWbI/TR6mZyCqfLI/AAAAAAAAB3M/y8yoCeYQdrY/s400/Primed.jpg)
I had some left-over dry-wall mud from redoing a bathroom project...so I mixed in a little brown acrylic paint. Viola...icing for the styrofoam!
![](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_KOfEGJ_pWbI/TR6mZgCbksI/AAAAAAAAB3E/f-_KGRDvOZQ/s400/Icing.jpg)
My desire was to emulate the wavy texture of wind-blown sand. So I just spread on the "mud" and dragged a plastic fork through it to get the effect I was trying for.
![](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_KOfEGJ_pWbI/TR6mZtLDV2I/AAAAAAAAB28/Vtbztv7khQ4/s400/Icing2.jpg)
Once the mud was dry, I sanded down the surfaces to soften it a bit...wanted the "sand-blasted" look on the boulders.
![](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_KOfEGJ_pWbI/TR6mEXlESQI/AAAAAAAAB20/yfJ_EZqbuL4/s400/Icing3.jpg)
After that, I coated everything with watered down Elmer's wood glue, to give it a harder shell.
![](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_KOfEGJ_pWbI/TR6mEMwGlOI/AAAAAAAAB2s/OL0aeBEScj8/s400/Glue1.jpg)
Once that had dried, I painted full-strength glue onto the areas where I wanted to add sand, for more texture. Sadly, I basically wasted all of the time I had put into making the wavy lines in the sand areas. The "real" sand pretty much filled all of that in. Oh well...I'm making this stuff up as I go...sometimes it doesn't quite work the way I had thought it might.
![](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_KOfEGJ_pWbI/TR6mEGEuk2I/AAAAAAAAB2k/GACS_GH4naE/s400/Glue2.jpg)
Once the glued-on sand had dried, I painted on one more coating of a primer tan.
![](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_KOfEGJ_pWbI/TR6mDo5F4wI/AAAAAAAAB2c/D1AsQcFLaqw/s400/Primed3.jpg)
Now I'm ready to do the fun part, and paint these guys to look like rusty-red boulders on sand-dunes!
![](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_KOfEGJ_pWbI/TR6mDiinnbI/AAAAAAAAB2U/WG0YPHd7UHA/s400/Primed2.jpg)
This is my last post for 2010. I hope you have a Happy New Year! See ya back here in 2011!
UPDATE!
Decided to make one more Dune this morning...a larger piece with a gentle slope. I skipped the "icing" phase of preparing the surface and just gave this one a coating of gesso. Next I painted on the glue and covered it with sand. Now it's primed and ready for the final paint job.
![](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_KOfEGJ_pWbI/TR9kzEsmWeI/AAAAAAAAB3U/rSoo-EK1NLk/s400/NewDune.jpg)