Vietnam earth. Help!!

very much into vietnam dioramas and i lead the vietnam special interest group here in the uk. i often use my parteners old face make up which comes in a large box with a variety of colours. this is ideal for dusting down. ask your female friends i am sure you will strike lucky. if you are into vietnam models big time e mail me on bsacdiver@hotmail.com

Rich - sand might be too coarse for the red clay look.  I live up in SE Texas and we have the red clay too.. I would go for plain dirt glued down then painted, or if you are going for a riverine type dio even plaster of paris.  That stuff gets awfully slick and smooth when wet....  you could go for a browner shade of dirt back from the waterline if that is what you are doing.... but at the waterline it would be reddish and smooth..

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I just reread and saw the Khe Sahn reference.. I would go for any fine grain material that would be fitting for your dio.  The plaster of paris wouldn't work as around the base there were no rivers very close (unless this is a big dio!!!) If you were airbrushing dry plaster of paris or flour would work depending on what scale you were working in... what scale are you working in, maybe we can come up with something?

Here's some pics:

As you can see the red tone varies with time of day and season.. hope you have some luck with this!!

Hi Tom,

Thanks for those pics. There are some real variations in colour. It'll really give me a good project to work on in the new year. My idea as it stands today is to make a dio of a dustoff evac wounded soldiers from "somewhere in Nam".

Thanks again.