Now that I've become more

Now that I've become more "sophisticated" in the hobby, I knew I needed to cook the dirt to get it perfectly dry and to rid it of any organisms or other critters. So I got a couple old baking pans, poured the can of dirt in, spread it around evenly, and baked it at 350 degrees for one hour, stirring it at the 30 minute mark.

Then, I sifted it through 3 grades of strainers. When all that was done, here's what I ended up with:

Should be self-evident, but the lower left is what all didn't fall through the first strainer (I'd added some rock to the can of soil I'd collected as well). Then clockwise from there are the different grades of dirt I ended up with.

There certainly didn't seem to be anything magnetic about the dirt, but I got a magnet anyway out of curiosity fully expecting nothing to stick.

I tossed the magnet into the finest grade container and, well, as you can see, there's definitely some ferrous material there. Even more surprisingly (to me, anyway) were the cool lines it formed into.

Ugh. Definitely wouldn't want any of that to end up in my motors!

But at least as much a concern as the magnetic particles is how out of scale it all seems:

Of course, "scale" depends on what you're using the material to represent. The above photo is the second-finest dirt. To my eye, it looked like super-fine, almost N scale, ballast. But put an HO figure on it and all-of-a-sudden it looks like a large pile of rocks. Ok if that's what you want - not for a dirt path or road though.

But really disappointing was the "finest" dirt. This is the stuff that looks almost like powder to my eye. Then you put the milkman in . . .

Ok for a gravel path, but certainly not for a dirt path.

Even if I didn't have these concerns, I worry about how this dirt will react to any glue/water mix. The old dirt I used years ago seemed a bit sandier and I just spread it on wet latex paint. Worked fine. But I'm afraid this stuff may turn to mud - or permanently darken, which would also be bad.

So I dunno what to do. Do YOU use real dirt for scenery?

If so, what do you do differently? Maybe I need finer strainers (though the resulting dust would probably dissolve with water, no?)

If not, what do you use to represent dirt - and how do you get that nice varied color & texture that makes it look so "right?

Please weigh in in the comments - even if only to accuse me of making this too complicated. It wouldn't be the first time I ever heard that :^)

And if you've never visited my website or blog, I hope you'll stop by:

http://www.thevalleylocal.net & http://blog.thevalleylocal.net

Chris

I've used mostly mine

I've used mostly mine tailings mostly dug up from Virginia City and Rhyolite Nevada.  I glue it down with white glue and it works great.  I think filtered dirt that is glued down looks great and is easy to obtain and use.  

Yup, dirt used here.

The biggest issue for me is finding dirt that is very light in color due to the darkening that glueing can cause.

 I also use unsanded grout (linen color) and ashes from the barbecue. Fine sifting is achieved with a nylon stocking.

sand

I use sifted sand for HO scale gravel. I then scatter a bit of green ground foam on top for weeds, and a bit of brown wash in any thin spots to look like mud puddles. 

The sand was originally from my kids sandbox, and before that it was part of a giant sandbank left over from the glaciers. I went to do a bit more scenicking this week and found I was out of sand. Guess I'll have to wait for the snow to melt before I can go get some more.  :-(

weeds?

Nice Rick, how do you make those great looking weeds/grass patches?

In the geology laboratory....

the “fines” you are looking for stay suspended in water for a while.  If you wash the smallest dirt you have and pour it off, let it settle, pour off the water, dry the residue and then grind it back into a powder you should get some fine fines without any monetary fines....

Good luck, it will work!

Nick

Dirty Thoughts

I use some kind of natural material, usually fine sand, as a base ground cover nearly everywhere on the layout.

Here, different colors were used for the railroad embankment, road, and the rest.  Some was applied over a brush coat of 50:50 diluted white glue. The fill around the tracks and the road were poured on with a spoon, soaked with water with a few drops of dish soap added, and then finally secured with the diluted white glue.

The finished scene shows the particle sizes and colors aren't entirely critical.  At least some of the sand is visible nearly everywhere, but doesn't really call attention to itself.  For the tire tracks in the road, which were to represent a finder dirt texture, I dry brushed acrylic paint to both alter the color and fill in some of the spaces between particles so they looked finer.

Here's another example in the early stages of completion.  I sifted the ground cover base but nothing else.  The natural distribution of rock fill around the track was accomplished by removing only the overscale rocks and leaving everything else.  The basic fill is larger rock, while the darker cinder (and other) fill is smaller sand dumped on top (which was also not sifted first). 

The muddy banks of the creek were a slurry mixed from sand and diluted glue.  The mixture creates a somewhat finer appearance compared to plain sand.  It was applied with an artist's palette knife.

The completed scene shows how it all works with grass and other vegetation.

Making weeds

Thanks for the kind comments Ken.

The following is from a post a few years ago where I was explaining the technique.

Make your own grade of materials

I've employed a similar method when it comes to using real dirt on my layout. I sifted and noted it only went so small in material size.  So to make smaller I use something available on Amazon. A coffee grinder. 

I use the grinder with my smallest materials and grind it up even more, usually about 10 seconds, shaking the grinder as I go. The end result is a great, almost powder dirt. It works perfect for mixing different colors and for my dirt ballast that was common on the narrow gauge lines of Colorado. 

Hey Craig

That coffee grinder sounds like a great idea. Do you have a link or a photo of yours that you could post?

Just spent some time on your website. Really nice work on your layout! Thanks!

Ground hog holes... I didn't

Ground hog holes... I didn't have any baseball diamonds around so I went to the closest ground hog hole and found some nice fine dirt from below the top soil level. 

I baked it in an old toaster oven and ran a magnet over to clean it up.  

combination of methods

I use a combo of the methods above. 

First, Rick is right. Color can be an issue when glued. It retains the color of mud even though it is dry.
Secondly, sifting...I sift out the big stuff then I through the dirt in a cheap yard sale blender. Whirl it up and let it sit for a while so everything settles (Whip that lid off right after getting off the 'puree' button and you are in for a bad, bad time as it gets in your eyes). Once done I strain it through a pair of expired ladies hose. I use a container, like a pringles tube or something like that, decide how large I want the particles to be at max, stretch the hose and rubber band them firmly to get the grate size. This takes a bit of practice as you will further stretch the hose to make a well to work in. Not hard to get the hang of though. 

Of Course.

I use sand, real dirt and coloured sawdust for my scenic base.

I got the idea from the Paul Scoles video series.

You can overcome the dark,

You can overcome the dark, wet mud colour of glued soil by rubbing pastel chalks over it, using something like Raw Umber for example.

Colours

I use different types of "soil" for my layout.

1. Dried soil from the garden.

2. Sand spread on the roads in winter here in the north.

3. Beach sand from the various lakes in Muskoka.

4. Soil from the unpaved country roads outside of town.

5. Sifted dirt from the gravel driveway of the local railway station in town.

Also, sifted sawdust coloured various shades to represent many things.

As well as used coffee grounds, as long as they are dried well in the oven in your stove for about an hour. Then when applied to the layout, completely saturated in PVA glue.

MikeC

That sounds intriguing. Could you elaborate? I'm unsure if it a color coating that any kind of powder could achieve or if it specifically the formulation of the type of pastels  or something entirely different. When it comes to soil you 'da man!

Home-Made Dirt

I completely agree about the coffee grinder!  A few years ago I purchased a used Mr. Coffee Grinder at the thrift store for about $5.00.  Since I am modeling the area in which I live, it was easy to go to a nearby construction site and fill a gallon can with the red dirt commonly used for construction fill, which is “mined” locally.  

Like several other contributors here, I cook the dirt in a 350 degree oven for about half an hour.  That dries the dirt and makes the grinding process much quicker.  I’ve used several colors of the red clay ranging from almost pink to rust-red and the effect is very good.

Load the coffee grinder to the “fill” line and power it up for about 15 seconds, and you are in business.  I sift the resulting dirt through a sheet of sheetrock sanding mesh to screen out the larger pieces that are not readily pulverized.  I set those aside to use in settings where small boulders or similar rocks are appropriate.

To place the dirt, I spray the area to be covered with a 50/50 solution of white glue and water.  Once this is evenly distributed across the area, I sprinkle the dirt with a converted  shaker bottle and use a cheap paint brush about 1” wide to “rake” it into place. Then spray the area with a very fine mist of isopropyl alcohol. The white glue and water mixture seems to “wick” up into the dirt, which initially darkens as it is wetted.   I have not yet experienced a color shift related to this process once the site dries - which takes about 24 hours.

Getting down in the Dirt

Some photos of the dirt process...the Mr. Coffee Grinder used to pulverize the baked dirt... 

This is the unsifted ground dirt produced after about a 15 second ride in the coffee grinder.

I sift the material through a piece of sanding screen used to finish sheetrock - it produces a very fine powder and the screen traps the "talus" useful for other scenic purposes.

Here is the fine powdered soil produced by this screening method.

This is the screened-out talus useful for other scenery work...

And here are some photos of the material installed on the railroad.

I’ve used real dirt on my

I’ve used real dirt on my previous layout and as others have commented it does darken significantly.  To make matters worse, the soil in my area had quartz in it that made it sparkle.  I found that I like using the ZIP texture better as I can control the color much better.

Dirt with a twist or two

I've been using backyard dirt as my major scenic surface for a long time.  

My back yard has about a foot of soil over clay.  I use five strainers:  a coarse mesh tea strainer, a fine mesh tea strainer, a stainless steel strainer, a kidney stone strainer (ask around; no need to develop kidney stones yourself), and a piece of nylon stocking.  The end results range from coarse detritus to dust.

i took a jar of my finest siftings to my Benjamin Moore paint dealer and had them make me a quart of flat latex that matches.  In my case it was "Woodcliff Lake" or thereabouts.  I put this down over my base terrain, as is or diluted, and shake fine dirt all over it.  The paint is sufficient to hold the first layer.  Additional layers can be added oover paint, while glue or both.  The advantage of this method is that the entire surface is in the same color, and the fine dirt makes it dead flat.  I usually have a shaker or two of fine foam sitting by to give additional interest to the surface.  I can then come back and add other color and rexture as time allows.

You can do this whole process with decomposed granite from a landscape dealer, and I have been experimenting with creating very fine sifts from sanded grout.  Different sifts for different circumstances.

in addition to thinning and adding glue to the paint base, you can buy another color in the same range (same sample color strip) to add variety to the base color itself.

A Spot of Tea

I dried dirt  in the summer sunshine in a metal baking pan and sifted over an old metal window screen. Large material retained on the screen was discarded. Like others, I did use a magnet to pickup any magnetically charged particles, which was almost nothing but good practice nonetheless.

For ground cover in forested areas, I combined the dirt with dried tea leaves and sprinkled over a liberal application of Elmer's white glue. Extra loose material applied sparingly as needed. Sometimes the tea leaves may need to be broken down with an old spoon in a bowl as they can be a little too large to represent dead leaves.

I'll be doing the winter scenery theme again on the next layout. Typical winter time in West Virginia tends to be mud  and snow from December to April, so mud-colored dirt isn't necessarily a problem. 

Beautiful scenery, Rob of a

Beautiful scenery, Rob of a well maintained railroad. I always enjoy viewing your railroad it's done very well and looks like it would be interesting to operate.

Barry

Following

Following

Thanks Barry

The kind words are appreciated.  Stop in and run with us sometime.