Tracks in Dirorama

Welcome to the Dark Side, Garth! I should be able to help you. Try painting the white glue onto the base with a brush and then sprinkling the sand on top. Then take a spray bottle and gently mist the sand until its just barely wet. This will ensure that all the sand comes in contact with the glue. Let this set-up for a while, say an hour or so, depending on how hot and/or dry it is where you are. Then take your tank or a section of track and gently press it into the sand. If you still have spurts of glue coming up through the sand, you haven't waited long enough. This should work, as this is how I did it on one of my dioramas.

Im assuming that you are doing a middle east theme on this one. First off if you are doing sand you should still start with celluclay (or something like it) for the first layer mixed with plenty of white glue. By the way if you havnt done so already and you are using a wood base this needs to be sealed thoroughly, this can be done with a brush or spray laquers or polyurathanes are usally best and use more than one coat and let it dry at least a couple of days before you lay the celluclay. You can ussually get a brick of celluclay for 5-10 bucks and it will do quite of few dios, spray laquer is about 5 a can. If you are going to keep the scene fairly flat then you can just start with the C-clay right off but if theres going to rises and gullies and such then you want to put these in first with styrofoam. The reason for this is you dont want make the c-clay to thick as it will take forever to dry and it tends to shrink. This brings up one other thing I should have mentioned earlier....PLANNING........this is the most important thing to do first because it will save you a lot of headaches later,. The easiest way to do this is to get a piece of cardboard about the size yopu think you want the base and work out all the details. Now myself I would lay out the celluclay in about 1/2 inch layer first, do you track impressions just before it starts to firm up (this is usually guesswork until you get it down) and then add your sand over that while it is still wet or after but spray down the c-clay with a soap and water mix but I would do it while the c-clay is wet.
Here is a pic with some elements of what I have gone over.
http://img1.photobucket.com/albums/1003/cplchilly/?action=view¤t=billsmodels090.jpg
The green areas are static grass and the rise is a chunk of styrofoam carved to shape. Here it is with its tank.
http://img1.photobucket.com/albums/1003/cplchilly/?action=view¤t=billsmodels080.jpg
I have to post new pics of this one as there hedgerows on rise and sorry about the quality I need a better camera. Ill see if I can dig up some info for you and post it later good luck and let me know how it works out.

thanks i am going to pick up some of that stuff. thank you guys. any more help woulkd be apriciated

Noproblem by the way if youhavnt got it already Kalbach publisings how to build dioramas is an excellent source of how tos.

Garth. I use Plaster of Paris, as the casting type plaster I use does not shrink like celluclay can. Here in Australia a 1kg bag is Aud $6 (USD $4-50) and will do many dios of say 300mm x 300mm.

First score your base board in a criss cross pattern to give the plaster something to bite onto. Finish off the edges in a stain or whatever, and mask with a good quality Painter's masking tape. This stuff can be left on for a few days and will not be effected by moisture and stick too hard or peel off like cheap masking tape can. Paint the crisscross area with a flat laquer or estapol to seal it from moisture. The moisture can cause the base to warp if not sealed properly.

When the sealer is dry mix up your plaster as per directions. I mix some cheap acryllic paint (student's stuff in tubes) with the water before adding it to the plaster. Use a darker colour of what you want to paint as the base colour, as the white plaster will lighten it. This way if you chip the base at some future stage you don't have this bare white patch showing through.

I spread the plaster around with a palate knife, and using my fingers I texture the ground work to get an uneven, non-flat surface - just like the real thing.

Most deserts are really crushed rock not sand, so make sure of what the ground is like in the place where you intend to depict your scene. With rocky desert I sprinkle cat litter in random places, mainly in the depressions, to represent crushed rock (press them in lightly as real rocks don't sit on top of the ground but are embeded in it), then sift fine sand over that. For straight sand desert, put down a good layer and press the sand in lightly then leave it for 10-15 minutes or so to start to cure. Depending on your climate it may take longer or shorter than this.

Then press the tank into the still moist but setting ground work where it will finally rest. (Tip 1: to prevent the ground work from sticking to your vehicle tracks, use some cling film loosely wrapped around the vehicle. Tip 2: When you do this for a wet earth base make sure there is a little slack in the cling film between the sets of treads so that you don't end up with a too wide and shallow 'V' instead of a crisper 'U' shaped groove in the groundwork.) Lift it off and set it further back, making sure the tread patterns over lap the first lot, to make sure the pattern is even and straight. Repeat as many times as you need to until the tread pattern reaches the side of the base. Real sand is dipersed by the vehicles weight, but unless it is wet compacted sand you will not see detail in the groove where the tracks have been, just a rough trough shape as the dry sand will dribble back to fill fine detail. Try to get that look in the tread pattern for your dio by pressing a little sand into the groove. If you have made a deep impression and lost the texture on the side of the groove, etc then just load a flat brush with sand and gently apply that the the bare area.

Let all this set for a day. After that I use a spray bottle with a 50/50 mix of water and PVA glue, which I mist spray all over the ground work until it is wet and then leave it to dry. This will make the sifted sand stick tight the base and fill any odd looking deep depressions or under cuts. When dry spray paint the base with your chosen colours, and weather.

For the sand in front of the plow, I would make up one lot of plaster for the base, paint and partially weather it , then fix the vehicle to the base. Then make up a second batch of plaster mix for the curl of sand in front of the plow and set that in place then paint that that to the stage you did the first lot. Then weather all the base with the smae colours to blend it all together. To do both at the same time, and make sure the vehicle sits right later may end up looking fake. Don't forget a few grains on the tank tracks as well. When the tank moves over the ground it picks up a lot of sand.

Sometimes bare sand and a sand painted vehicle can be a bland dio. Glue in a twig or dried root of a plant on the base to represent the sparse bushes that can be found in the Middle East. You will be suprised how something that simple can give the end result a little lift.

Hope this helps

yea that was very helpfull. i am hoping to make a little "mine field" sign and put little mines being pushed to the side by the plow

any tips on that would be very helpful

For the sign, you could get some decals, people make whole sheets of them, letters with numbers and everything. Get a little piece of wood cut to your shape and paint or leave it bare and put the decals on there.