Real Dirt for Scenery Question

[grande man]

I have used sifted garden soil, dried, mixed with Plaster of Paris, and glued only with wood glue, on four consecutive layouts since entering the hobby 19 years ago. I have never baked it. Works fine just as it is.

Here it is, always in my yard:

I agree with Dave. Those scenes are fantastic!

 

[Selector]

Thank-you, grande man.

 

[KB02]

Another benefit of using real dirt for scenery is that it is cheap as... well... dirt!
AND... If you happen to have a bucket of it laying around, and some model tractors, and an 8 year old, and you leave that combination alone for long enough, you can have nice plowed fields for as far as the eye can see.

And when it comes time to clean up the corn fields: It's just dirt.

 

[Frenchie]

Hi ! Concerning ground cover I don't use dirt, I prefer crushed sand. I get it from a gravel pit (quarries should be ok), I fill a bucket for a
small amount, sometimes free. I also get a mix of "pebble" type stones I use in creek beds to simulate water eroded rocks.
I don't bake it, when it's dry I screen it to different sizes. I like to screen the finest through a stocking to obtain a very thin powder.
While screening I remove any dead bugs, twigs, and so on.

I spread white carpenter glue on the carved foam terrain. Then I cover with different sand sizes with stones added.
Later on I come back with a pipette to wet everything with alcohol or water with dishwashing detergent added. Then a 50/50 mix of glue, water and again a few drops of dishwashing detergent.

When set it is like concrete. The drawback is that an airbrush is necessary to color the finished terrain, I use gouache (water colors).
Sand is great because it naturally flows down inclines, around rocks, and also great to make drifts.
I use the "powder" type for dirt roads, since it's very light I rather spread it over the wet glue saturated sand, and vacuum the excess when
glue has set.
As a last step I like to drybrush the terrain to make stones and grains of sand stand out, having a more individual look. It might seem
tedious, but it's worth it.

 

[grande man]

Hi ! Concerning ground cover I don't use dirt, I prefer crushed sand. I get it from a gravel pit (quarries should be ok), I fill a bucket for a
small amount, sometimes free. I also get a mix of "pebble" type stones I use in creek beds to simulate water eroded rocks.
I don't bake it, when it's dry I screen it to different sizes. I like to screen the finest through a stocking to obtain a very thin powder.
While screening I remove any dead bugs, twigs, and so on.

I spread white carpenter glue on the carved foam terrain. Then I cover with different sand sizes with stones added.
Later on I come back with a pipette to wet everything with alcohol or water with dishwashing detergent added. Then a 50/50 mix of glue, water and again a few drops of dishwashing detergent.

When set it is like concrete. The drawback is that an airbrush is necessary to color the finished terrain, I use gouache (water colors).
Sand is great because it naturally flows down inclines, around rocks, and also great to make drifts.
I use the "powder" type for dirt roads, since it's very light I rather spread it over the wet glue saturated sand, and vacuum the excess when
glue has set.
As a last step I like to drybrush the terrain to make stones and grains of sand stand out, having a more individual look. It might seem
tedious, but it's worth it.

That's some amazing modeling work. I can only imagine the photography potential such beautiful scenery would provide.