I am in the middle of building a diorama and I had soil from Western New York State used for a dirt road. It was sifted with a tea strainer but I was not at all satisfied with the scale boulders’ mixed in. While this seems to be good to represent a creek bed, it’s certainly not an applicable for this; I had no other choice but to use it here and here only. There HAS to be a way to represent a dirt road and have the dirt not look like a football team spilled their equipment all over! I have seen photos of MRR layouts the have great looking dirt roads and ask myself, “WHAT DO THEY REALLY USE!!!”.
For really smooth dirt like dirt roads… one method is to use spackling compound and smooth it. After it’s dry it can then be smoothed and sculpted further with spayed water and fingers. Work it until it suits you and then some more. Color it with watered acrylic washes and/or airbrush. Add fine ballast and grass/weeds to suit. It’s not easy and takes some pratice and skill, but is worth the effort. Some other fine materials are Mount Saint Helen’s volcano ash. My sister sent me some long ago and it was fine. I get really fine dirt here from dirt roads in the sticks. Also along where the streets and sidewalk meet you can find some nice materials. Cigar and cigarette ash work too. Some potting soils. I use lots of play sand from the lumber yard. I even have used coffee grounds and walnut shell sandblasting medium. Lots of this stuff is almost free. I use to joke I stole sand from the sandbox at the park, but was afaid someone might tell.
I think the real “pros” use the finest dirt possible.
This would be Dust Mite droppings.
Apparently they can be vacuumed from anyone’s bedsheets by an aggressive Filter Queen or Kirby vacuum salesperson.[}:)][;)][;)]
Yes I’m kidding.
My word, it’s hot today…90F
Time for my meds.
[ A beer. ]
regards \ Mike
Meaford Ontario
Wow…that’s hot, guess when you say “show me” to the weather guy, he really does. Wish I could send you a nice cold Canadian 5% beer.
regards \ Mike[:D]
A friend of mine used dried silt harvested from beside the shore of the Fraser River in British Columbia. Dried river silt is incredibly fine. So he took me down to his “harvesting shore” about two weeks ago and I got my load for the layout. I sifted it through a screen window screen.
I plan on using it everywhere. It is very light in colour, almost a blonder sand colour. I decided instead of using paint as a base coat for the layout, why not real dirt. I will still have lots over it, just as you have lots over a base coat of paint, but if anything shows through, you will be looking at real dirt, not paint.
I model the southern Blue Ridge Mountains, so I need red clay. Fortunately I live there, so I have an unlimited supply. I baked it in the oven on a cookie sheet to dry it.
Then I put it in zip lock bags and pounded it with a hammer to start making it finer. Then sifted it through successively finer screens to wind up with really fine material.
Most kitchen and cooking stores have very fine sifters available. They are much finer than window screen.
Look on the sides of gravel roads for “blow sand”. It’s very fine sand that’s been crushed by cars and trucks driving along the road. The stuff is VERY fine, and once screened, makes for a vrey realistic road. And if you want it to look even finer, just sand it a little.
Paint the area with dirt colored latex paint and then sift plaster onto the wet paint. Gives you a little texture, but very fine particles. An alternative is diatomaceous earth (used in swimming pool filters).
You can frequently find perfectly good blenders at thrift stores and second hand shops. We got one at the local VFW thrift store for five bucks. It works great for grinding up scenery materials and also for preparing moss to be planted between the rocks in our patios. Having one for non-food prep tasks makes life a lot more pleasant.
I’ve been using blended colors of “Scenic Sand” this is a very fine sand in quite a number of colors. It is made by Activa Products Inc. in Texas so should be available in the US too. Here it is sold in stores that sell hobby products and is apparantly used to make “sand pictures”, much like the |Indians make or used to make.
Rivet counters, what is the scale size of a grain of sand?
colin154,
If you would like to use dirt from the area you model I would sift it down in stages using small homemade sieves. Be sure the dirt is dry, very dry, or it will stick to the screen. Stage one: Pick out the larger pieces, rocks and pebbels. Put them in a box or bag for landscape use. Stage two: Sift the dirt through window screen (this is normally #25-30 mesh). Mesh is the number of openings per linear inch. What you have in the screen can be used for hillside rock/gravel or what ever. Stage three: Sift what’s left through a tea strainer (most are #50 mesh). What you catch in the tea strainer can be used for roadbed? or what ever. Stage four: Sift what’s left through a drip coffer maker “screen”, not a filter, but one of those screen inserts, these are normally #100 mesh. What you have in the screen is good for roadside gravel.
What comes through the #100 mesh screen should be fine enough for dirt road gravel. If it is still a little large for your liking you can buy finer mesh screen. Use you favorite search engine and search for “wire cloth”.
Years ago for a WWII beach landing diorama, I sieved real Normandy beach sand through #200 screen.
Gotta say that I’m amazed not to see anyone mention what is the most common and obvious method employed out my way to create very fine dirt.
After drying a small container of local dirt, run it through fine screening. Scoop up a plastic beverage cup full of the results. Secure a layer of women’s pantyhose (leg area) across the mouth of the cup. Hold this arrangement up-side-down over a small bucket and shake side-to-side vigorously. What ends up in the bucket is the finest dirt you can imagine. It does take some effort to produce a significant pile of this fine material but it is just perfect for the job of representing soil/dirt road surface on the layout.
Incidentally, I also used this fine dirt like chalk dust in the final weathering of my structures. Very realistic!
as Fergie also noted, I’ve considered using extra-fine coffee grounds.
some might re-cycle them for the railroad (once dry), but the thing that I’m uncertain about is if food substances / coffee in the scenery and layout construction will attract rodents ???
cheers, Krump