Foam soil

i> Has anyone tried the earth and soil colored ground foams? I know most i> people probably just paint their scenery brown and then add green foam i> and static grass or whatever. Do you think it would be worth it to lay i> down a few layers of earth colored foam before adding on the grass?

Yes. I do this, particularly where the grass is going to be 'thin' (eg dirt roads, paths, deep forest, etc.) or where I want more 'texture' under the grass (or bushes, etc.). I 'paint' the surface with a base earth color and then sprinkle on the earth colored foam while the paint is still wet. Sometimes I toss on fine ballast or talus for added texture. Later I follow up with more brown or start with green foams (depending on what the scene needs), which I then soak with 50-50 white glue/water.

i> i>

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LB> Robert Heller wrote: LB> > LB> > Yes. I do this, particularly where the grass is going to be 'thin' LB> > (eg dirt roads, paths, deep forest, etc.) or where I want more LB> > 'texture' under the grass (or bushes, etc.). I 'paint' the surface LB> > with a base earth color and then sprinkle on the earth colored foam LB> > while the paint is still wet. Sometimes I toss on fine ballast or LB> > talus for added texture. Later I follow up with more brown or start LB> > with green foams (depending on what the scene needs), which I then LB> > soak with 50-50 white glue/water. LB> > LB> LB> WARNING! I also did the bit of sprinkling earth colored foam over wet LB> earth colored paint. Later I went back and added some more foam where LB> needed using matte medium & water. Guess what? Two different colors. LB> Seems the first batch soaked up some of the paint color which lightened it.

And how is this really a problem? In some ways it is realistic. I guess it also matters what you use as a paint. I use Woodland Scenics Earth Color on a Hydrocal surface. Also, I never leave the first layer (in the wet paint) as the final layer. Something *always* goes on top of it eventually.

LB>

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The brown foam will look more like large rocks than dirt. Ultra flat paint is about right for dirt. You also want to keep away from having flat surfaces as there isn't much grading done to the ground and what there is is usually torn up quickly by man and nature. Use the brown foam sparingly to simulate rocks laying about.

-- Why do penguins walk so far to get to their nesting grounds?

You can pay for brown foam if you want to, or go to your nearest nusery and get a bucket of what is known locally as "packing sand" (used to pack under pavers, etc). Quite often they wont even charge you for one bucket, othertimes it might be a dollar. Sieve it through fly screen, use the rocks sorted out for wherever rocks are needed - scree, alluvial depositing, etc - and sprinkle the remainins sand onto your painted flat scenery. Personally I let the paint dry, then paint white glue mixed 1:1 with water over it. But whatever works for you I guess.

Has a nice non-descript browny-greyish-tannish colour, too. :-)

Steve Newcastle NSW Aust

One other step involved here. Anytime you use mother nature, bake it in the oven at 250 at least for ten minutes. This kills all the things that are asleep in the dirt that can cause nasty surprises on the layout (mold, bugs, etc....) Unless, of course, you model PC....

Claude Allen

Two other steps, actually...

Run a magnet through it... you don't want little magnetic bits getting into you locomotives.

people probably just paint their scenery brown and then add green foam and static grass or whatever.< Actually real dirt or crushed rock from various places works. Hard to tell it from real dirt!