Good morning. I am modeling HOn3 colorado narrow gauge. I am having a problem using DIRT. I have sifted top soil from here in Illinois. I baked it dry in the oven and the color lightened up from the deep black normal color. I further lightened this with "Durhams putty " powder. This combo looked great as ballast in my engine yard when it was dry. My problem is when I wetted the “ballast” it returned to the orignal deep black color . How do you keep the dirt looking dry and dusty when you glue it down? I am hoping to futher use this "dirt as additional texture thru out the layout along with as the other common materials. I also have some baseball diamond dirt. This also looks great dry but the also darkens when sprayed with wet water and matt medium. HELP !!!
I’ve been using sanded grout recently with good results. NG&SLG had a feature on it several issues back. You can mix it up like plaster and apply it wet, or sprinkle it on dry and add water and/or diluted glue or matte medium to hold it in place.
Wecome to the forums.
You will find that some things, natural and man-made do change color once wetted and then dried. My suggestion is to experiment in an out of the way place on the layout or on a seperate piece of the material you are working with as a base. It may take a few tries with different mixes to get just what you want. It’s all part of the hobby, try/fail, try/succeed. My rock faces still aren’t just what I want, but they are getting closer.
Good luck,
This is a common thing to happen with a water absorbent material. Give it a few days to dry and see if it lightens up. It may take weeks to dry depending on how good its sealed with the mat medium and how much water it absorbed.
Pete
It wil dry out and return to its original color. Drying time could be weeks depending on relative humidity and the amount of glue in your mix. An electric room heater will speed up the process. My layout is covered with 100% real dirt. No baking, no magnets, just sift it, and glue it. (four parts water, one part gule, five drops of liquid detergent.)