Dark Dirt ?

[bparrish]

Gents....
I had not thought of colored grout powder.  In the west here we have some very alkali soil that has a light sandy color.   Common dirt out my back yard still goes pretty dark when glued down.

I go out in the desert and look for gopher hotels and snag five gallon buckets of the stuff they have pushed to the top.   We have a layer of hard pan clay called colechee (?)  Southwest Idaho was prehistorically part of the Bonneville lake complex and has a thick hard sedimentary layer about a foot down everywhere in the valley.  It is even lighter in color and by the time they mine it up it is like talcum powder.   I bake it in the oven so as to not import something loathsome.

My wife assigned me my own cookie sheet for this. A 300 degree oven is not enough sterilent to suit her.  But there are times where I don't debate the enabler.

I find that the light color offers good contrast for everything else on the pike.



see ya
Bob

[Dennis Bourey]

Thank you Bob. I like the color.

[Dennis Bourey]

Hi Guy's experiment day. I did a foam with earth paint from lowes. and did a 9 samples . Here's the result's. Left to Right. Top Soil just a sifter screened. next is Top sifter screen soil with Durham's Putty. Next is Top Soil done with a nylon sock after a sifter screened, next is Gravel done with a sock after a sifter screen, next is gravel with a sifter screen only, next is Durham's and Haystack, next is Haystack and sifted screen only next is Gravel and Haystack sifter screen and the nylon sock, Next is Gravel and Haystack with sifter only. Phew Dennis

[Keep It Rusty]

That middle one looks best, in my opinion.

[Dennis Bourey]

This one Craig?

[Keep It Rusty]

Yeah, that's my pick!

[Dennis Bourey]

Believe it or not that's just gravel with it sifted but not sifted through a nylon stocking. My Haystack didn't even work out.

[Opa George]

That's very close to the color I get using just all purpose sand.  I sift it through a standard kitchen wire strainer and use the fine results for earth base and even dirt roads, and the course stuff that won't go through the strainer for the rough gravelly areas and fill between rock castings.

--Opa George

[Dennis Bourey]

George, That is weird how gravel looks better then topsoil. lol

[Opa George]

George, That is weird how gravel looks better then topsoil. lol

True. But some things do not scale down well and under our indoor lighting end up looking less realistic. Rocks are another example.  I've tried using real rocks to represent boulders, but they never look as good to my eye as finished plaster castings of rocks.

--Opa George

[GPdemayo]

Great information by all for an often overlooked subject.....thanks.

[Dennis Bourey]

Thank you George and Greg, More homework.

[Oldguy]

Shouldn't your dirt color depend upon what area you are modeling?  I'm modeling somewhat local so I can get by with a backyard dirt pile.  If I was modeling Arkansas, I'd need to add some reddish tint.  Georgia would be redder yet.  For other parts of the country, I have no clue, but it seem to me to be important to have an idea to get a feel for the area.

[deemery]

Definitely, granite soils look different from sandstone/limestone soils, look different from clay soils. 

So it's a combination of where you're modeling and how things look under your layout lights.

dave

[S&S RR]

Here is a picture of the chalk that I use for my base color over the sand that I described above.





It is called old dirt brown and I buy it from Bragdon Enterprises.


http://www.bragdonent.com




I go lighter and darker using the appropriate colors of chalk applied over this base.