Sawdust ground cover

[CAS]

I just want to know if anyone else used or try useing sawdust for there grass, or ground cover?

I had just bought a box of Rit dye(fabric dye), tan and green. Added some water to my dye powder, mixed it for a while. Added some of my sawdust. Now i'm just waiting for the sawdust to dry, been like 20 hours outside.

I have also made ground foam with the blender and foam.

But curious about the sawdust. I have read articles, but never seen the outcome.

Thanks,
CAS

 

[Catt]

Dyed sawdust is one of the earliest forms of scenic ground cover there is.I remember using it way back in the day.The finer the sawdust is the better it looks but even the courser grades look decent if they aren't dyed to britely.

I for one am looking forward to seeing some scenery done with your dyed sawdust.

 

[ezdays]

Yeah, I've got a few bags of dyed sawdust. I'm not too crazy about how some of the darker green shades came out, but I did shades varying from light to dark green and light to dark brown. It's been a while since I did it, but I remember that I had to mix dark green with yellow to get the lighter colors and I added blue or purple to get the browns. I also dyed heavier wood chips as well to use as ground cover debris.

 

[steamhead]

I'm using sawdust on some areas of my layout. I don't dye it, but use it "natural", and then lightly dab some wash colors on it to give it some colr. Since I model mostly (all..??) desert, its natural color is close to being real (I think...).

 

[CAS]

I'm not too crazy about how some of the darker green shades came out,

my green came out way to dark , also. Maybe next batch will be more water, less dye. Now my brown, well i used a tan color, it looks ok. It's still drying outside.

CAS

 

[DeckRoid]

Are you using the 50/50 glue - water mix to lay it down?

Now that I have the layout I want, I need to paint my board and get some scenery ideas. I never thought of sawdust.

One of the fellows at the local club suggested painting the plywood then tossing clean dirt onto it before it dries. Then adding greens and other colors later. But sawdust? That's a new avenue of possibilities. Anxious to see the end product.

 

[ezdays]

my green came out way to dark , also. Maybe next batch will be more water, less dye. Now my brown, well i used a tan color, it looks ok. It's still drying outside.

CAS

Yeah, my dark greens came out a bit too unatural. Almost bluish. I just added yellow to lighten it up. I didn't have much choice in colors though, the stores I found it at didn't have much of an assortment. That's why I had to make my own browns and tans.

Drying here is not a problem, put it out in the Arizona sun for an hour or so and it get too hot to handle..:-D

 

[woodone]

I have used saw dust in the past. I dyed my own saw dust. Did this outside on an old camping stove. Large can of water and dye (Rit) heat untill the water is boiling, then add the saw dust. You use as much saw dust as the water will take. Let it cool and strain. Spreed out on some old newspaper and let dry. You can speed the dry time if you put the wet sawdust into a old cotton cloth and squeeze the water out of the saw dust.
You can save the water that you got off from the straing & squeezeing and reheat, add more saw dust to get a second batch. This batch will be much lighter in color. Repete the process untill you are out of the dye water.
I used matte meduim to fasten down on the layout. If you use a fine sifter (tea strainer) you can get a very light dusting of the saw dust and it will look very good.
You need good clean saw dust to do this. If you get sawdust that comes from plywood and or partical board, there will be glue in the saw dust. This glue will not take dye.