Meat - an adventure into the unknown

I don't eat much meat. I used to be a vegetarian, but as time moved on I've slowly added meat and fish into my diet but still don't eat a lot of it as I prefer to make vegetable based meals . 

My miniatures reflect my likes - I make a lot of cakes (I like cake!) and not many meat products. I had a week off my job that pays the bills so I decided to use the time to make meat products as I knew it would take me a while to get the colours, texture and technique to a level I was happy with. 

I have some clay and the internet to help me. I decided to start with something 'easy' like bacon slices. The first attempt weren't quite right - not enough translucency, too pink, the bacon slices ended up out of shape and the feeble attempts to get them back into shape failed. I slapped some red acrylic paint on them after they had baked and they did look a tiny bit better but they still ended up in the bin. 

Then I decided to do what I should have done in the first place which was mix up several shades of pink and red and cook them as a test bake to see how the colours came out. Once I knew how the clay baked and with the help of google images I started making things.

Just to remind you these are scale minaitures and non edible. The black boards are 1 inch by 1 1/2 inch to give you an idea of scale.

Black pudding

Salami

Cooked beef joint

Cooked ham 

Cooked leg of lamb

Chops

Sausage and bacon

Steaks