Desert materials?

1 use real sand with elmer's type of white glue.

2 use white glue and sprinkle baking soda or baby powder then paint and drybrush to your needs

3 pour a sheet of plaster and texture it with a stick to make patterns, then paint to your liking

I recently posted my "tunis" dio with a celluclay/plaster base using option #3 i just wrote above...

my $.02

-Muzzleflash

Hey cmotz,
In the near future I want to do a dessert dio w/ a 109 so I started to plan ahead and this what I found.
I actually used "play sand" fine grade and it looks darn good.
The one thing you have to do is wash the sand w/ soapy water and then let it air dry followed by putting a heat source to it
(hair dryer or portable heater). This basically disinfects the sand
I used a mixture of Elmers white glue and water(mixture of water and sand is up to you). I applied the mix in stages followed by the sand(depending how big your dio will be. If its on a small scale (8x10) you could apply the mix all at once).
I used an old pepper shaker to apply the sand. Funny as it may sound it works well.
Flaps up,Mike

Hey muzzle, great minds think alike. Scary aint it.
Flaps up,Mike

Hey guys,

If you use celuclay for your ground material, mix in some dirt form your backyard or some very fine sand. You will most likely be painting the surface anyway, so the material will be there more for texture than anything else. Add some kitty litter (the clay kind), small rocks, or whatever detrius you are going to use for even more texture. One good source for this type of thing is at the base of the down spout from your gutters. Small stones and material is washed from your shingles and is "sluced" down the spout and collects there at the base. These are really fine so are pefect for 1/35. Once painted, given the wash and drybrushed the base will be perect and have that good desert feel. By painting it, it will allow you to match the weathering color on the model as well.

Remember the idea is textrue for the material not so much color. You can force the color.....

Mike

renarts is right on. When I go to do my bases for my a/c, I use good ol "Mother natures" dirt.
For the grass, I use static grass from the train section. WOW can you believe it I actually have to go into the train section.
Anywow when all is said and done I dry brush over the static grass w/ different tones of green and browns(giv or take the setting).
Heck come to think of it, if it was not for the train dudes we would not be here right now!!
Flaps up, Mike

Hows it goin renart

Post some pics when your glue dries...


-Muzzleflash

Would silica (sp?) sand work? The stuff used in sand blasters. It's inert - no need to disinfect. It used to come in 5-10 lb bags for a couple of bucks --- at most hardware stores/lumber yards. I'm not sure, but I hihnk there's even different grain sizes (courseness)?

The pepper shaker is a great idea.....

Jim

Thanx for the suggestions. I want to be sure that the sand is the right size, cause i'm gonna be putting some 1/72 figures in the dio, and if the grains aren't the right size it'll be real obvious when compared to the figures. by the way, i've been using Revell's 1/72 vehicle and infantry sets, and the armor is GREAT, but the figures are a bit dissapointing (namely, most of them have bases like those on toy soldiers) does anybody know anywhere else that you can get 1/72 figures?