Hi all,
I’m currently in the process of scratchbuilding a stockyard, and I intend to have a dirt ‘floor’ for it. However, the dirt in my local area is a medium-grey colour, not at all like the colour in New Mexico. I was thinking about taking some of this dirt from my backyard and staining/colouring it with acrylic craft paints. Has anyone tried this before? What would you reccommend?
Thanks in advance,
tbdanny
I would instead explore making use of powdered pigments (available at craft and art and hobby stores) and mix them with your gray dirt to change the shade. Trying to stain or paint dirt sounds like an exercise in frustration to me.
I think it is the latest issue of Great Model Railroads where the guy showed how using the actual dirt from his modeled location looked too dark in his basement so he lightened it with powdered grout and mixed in it. I assume dirt can be darkened or changed in color or tone with the same process.
If you have some Durham’s Water Putty around try a bit with your dirt and see what it looks like.
Dave Nelson
Look for either tempera powders at craft and artist supplies stores, or for masonry dyes at builder’s supplies stores. The masonry dyes are a bit pricey, but a little goes a long way. Maybe you can wrangle a deal to get half a cup of the stuff instead of the one or two pound bags they’ll have for sale.
What these guys said. It’s called Zip texturing and there are several threads on it as well as many articels and at least one DVD I know of
ratled
Tiny tidbit: Real dirt will dry darker than its original state after you have applied a “diluted glue” to make it stick.
I feel your pain as I live in Kansas City and model the Santa Fe in Oklahoma, where the prarie winds blow and the dirt is various shades of red. However, I am able to “go home” every so often and fill some bags/buckets and bring it back. But, I have at times used the dry powder pigments someone has already mentioned to get a different shade and it works well.
I know Australia is a bit of a jump to New Mex, but the pigments may be what you need also.
Bob
Noticed some dirt that was just a shade too light on the footpath (sorry, sidewalk [:D]) coming home yesterday. I figure if I just go in, grab it, and mix it with a pinch of the dark grey (after all, this is for a stockyard) that should do. And if I do it quick enough, noone would notice - I mean, it’s public property, right?
I gotta ask. How do you secure the dirt on your layout? Doesn’t dirt turn to mud when it’s soaked with Matte medium and water? Maybe I need to look at the zip texturing method to find out. I’ve read plenty of literature on the water soluable method, etc.
Chris
The way I’m thinking of doing it (I’ve only done this with the Woodland scenics grass) is to;
Trim styrene base to match template
Put a glue-soaked section of white cotton sheet over the top of it
Paint the dried cotton sheet with the ‘ground’ colour, and sprinkle the dirt over it while the paint’s drying.
It’s worked with the WS stuff, so it should work with the dirt.
Actually many parts of Australia have a similar shade of reddish rock/soil as New Mexico. But I believe he comes from Queensland, which is somewhat more tropical than the interior of the country.
If you know people in the Outback, maybe get them to send you some dirt…the soil in the Australian Outback is very similar to that in many parts of New Mexico.
This is mainly true up the north of the state, near the tropic of Capricorn. I’m in Brisbane, which is in the middle of the ‘bulge’ on the right of the continent - on the coast, just below the point where the bulge curves back in. It’s not exactly ‘outback’ or ‘tropical’ here.
The dirt in the street will be the right colour (based on Google Street View of Las Vegas, NM) if it darkens a bit while drying, as one of the other posters has pointed out.
Thank you all for the advice given.