I did a little "gardening" yesterday - getting some earth for my layout!! And a little baking after that.... model RR style that is.
First I spread the earth out in a baking pan and "cooked" it at 500°F for 20 mins to kill all the little micro-critters that may have been there. It sure looked yummy when I got it out of the oven.
Then I bashed it up to a fine powder with a hammer. Borrowed my mom's flour sifter to strain the result (pic 1).
Nothing looks as much like real earth as real earth! I built up the ground between the tracks using spackle thinned to pouring consistency with water. Why not Plaster of Paris you ask? Because the stores were closed and I couldn't wait!! It dried overnight with no shrinkage so that's another one for the old bag of tricks.
Painted it with my ground colour, but by the time I finished airbrushing the tracks to weather them, there wasn't much left of that colour. So... I just added the earth right over top. Brushed on some thinned white glue and spread earth over top.
When dry, I used a dry paintbrush to sweep up as much of the earth as possible. I will also vaccuum the area, but I wanted to reclaim as much material as possible.
Actually, I really like the way that earth got into the ties and dulled them down. Maybe before I vaccuum I should hit it with Dullcoat to keep that look.
Pic 2 shows the overall yard.
Val
First I spread the earth out in a baking pan and "cooked" it at 500°F for 20 mins to kill all the little micro-critters that may have been there. It sure looked yummy when I got it out of the oven.
Then I bashed it up to a fine powder with a hammer. Borrowed my mom's flour sifter to strain the result (pic 1).
Nothing looks as much like real earth as real earth! I built up the ground between the tracks using spackle thinned to pouring consistency with water. Why not Plaster of Paris you ask? Because the stores were closed and I couldn't wait!! It dried overnight with no shrinkage so that's another one for the old bag of tricks.
Painted it with my ground colour, but by the time I finished airbrushing the tracks to weather them, there wasn't much left of that colour. So... I just added the earth right over top. Brushed on some thinned white glue and spread earth over top.
When dry, I used a dry paintbrush to sweep up as much of the earth as possible. I will also vaccuum the area, but I wanted to reclaim as much material as possible.
Actually, I really like the way that earth got into the ties and dulled them down. Maybe before I vaccuum I should hit it with Dullcoat to keep that look.
Pic 2 shows the overall yard.
Val