Thread: "Monster Mud" Help

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Last week, Ghouliet & I bought this all purpose joint compound from Home Depot... but now we're not sure we bought the correct thing. So any help would be appreciated.

Here's what we got:


We don't want to open it if it's not going to work.

Yep, that's perfect.

I'll second that....go for it.

's what we used.

I bought the exact stuff a week ago, knowing I was correct because Terra kindly posted a picture of the same substance on another post related to this one a while ago.

I have it and I have a gallon of latex paint, I am just not sure how to mix it because I dont have a drill (long story), and I dont have the mixer attachment. I know I could probably do it by hand but it would take a lot of my strength and I am by no means weak, just think by the time I mixed it, I would be to tired to apply it and if I let it sit it will separate again by the time I wanted to use it. Any ideas on that? I dont have money to buy a drill or drill attachment either.

Originally Posted by imindless

I bought the exact stuff a week ago, knowing I was correct because Terra kindly posted a picture of the same substance on another post related to this one a while ago.

I have it and I have a gallon of latex paint, I am just not sure how to mix it because I dont have a drill (long story), and I dont have the mixer attachment. I know I could probably do it by hand but it would take a lot of my strength and I am by no means weak, just think by the time I mixed it, I would be to tired to apply it and if I let it sit it will separate again by the time I wanted to use it. Any ideas on that? I dont have money to buy a drill or drill attachment either.

Don't mix it all at once. If you have a empty 5 gallon bucket take 1/4 of the mud and 1qt of paint and mix that up using a piece of wood. It really isn't very hard to do and I don't think I ever used a drill. Use all the mixture then repeat as you need it or mix up some more till you got all of it mixed together and then use it or store it till you are ready to use the mud.

You can't mess it up because there isn't a "exact" formula for MM

How well does it work if you don't mix it together and just paint it after it's dried?

I never tried it like that so I don't know but I do know it's a lot easier to do the finish painting if you mix the MM and try to get it close to the color you want the prop.

Originally Posted by spottedchaos

How well does it work if you don't mix it together and just paint it after it's dried?

It will crack a lot. Adding the latex paint is what allows it to be a bit more flexible. That's the secret to deciding what mm recipe you want to use. More paint = more flexibility ....BUT you lose that great thick texture that drywall mud has. If you are putting it on something that will be indoors and not moved around a lot than you can go with a 5 to 1 mix (drywall compound to paint) or even higher. I've found I like using a 3.5 to 1 ratio for mm cloth items that will go outside (after Dryloking) and 5 to 1 for griming up props.

Remember for mm cloth items you can't go too high or it's next to impossible to get it soaked into the cloth.

Sometimes a very soupy mix of mostly paint works good too. Soaks into the cloth very well, ring our excess and then drap onto the Halloween prop. This way the project, be it creature, tombstone or whatever is already pretty much water proofed and good to decorate outdoors. (costs more in paint though)