Real Dirt As Scenery

[Gyroflyer]

Hi,

I’ve read articles of people using real dirt for their ground scenery and in their explanation of breaking down, sifting, and so on before use, they haven’t mentioned anything about clearing out the magnetic pieces within the dirt. I don’t think “pieces” is the correct word but I’ve heard that one should run a magnet through the dirt to take out anything that would collect to the magnets of locomotives.

Is this a myth or is it something to be concerned about?

Mark 

[shamoo737]

I use dirt and ballast from Arizona rock and minerals, and I have not had to sift though it.  I know a lot of modelers use it and have not heard of anything about having to sort it .

[DKS]

I use dirt and ballast from Arizona rock and minerals, and I have not had to sift though it.  I know a lot of modelers use it and have not heard of anything about having to sort it .

Being as that's a commercial product, it's likely already been cleaned.

When using dirt from your backyard or whatever, it should be cleaned. The usual method is to bake it in an oven to kill any living organisms such as molds, and then sift it as needed. Since most modelers permanently bond the dirt to the layout, I'm not certain that removing ferrous particles with a magnet is really necessary, other than to perhaps prevent them from creating rust spots. But since I don't use real dirt in my scenery, I'm not an expert.

[Pray59]

I found a trick with real dirt that works pretty good, I mix 50/50 white glue with water, paint an area on my module with it, then sprinkle on sifted backyard dirt to about 1/64" thickness, or about 4 sheets of paper thick. I let it dry, then sprinkle on another thinner layer and spread evenly, then mist with water. The first layer is glued down very solid, but the second layer is a transition layer to hide any glossy look from the first, and after that drys I rub it with my finger, releasing a very fine powder which you can blow off later, and get a very, very fine natural dirt look. As an added bonus, the powder released by rubbing transitions with adjacent ground cover blending them together very realistically. Try a test area to see for yourself!

[John]

I'm not certain that removing ferrous particles with a magnet is really necessary, other than to perhaps prevent them from creating rust spots. But since I don't use real dirt in my scenery, I'm not an expert.

I'm not certain that its all that big of a deal either, and probably one of those "model railroading rules" that everyone always quotes as gospel ..

I use dirt from my backyard, cooked on the BBQ grill in the summer, then strained into an empty WS container .. I do pretty much what Pray59 does .. I do add a drop of lysol to the glue water mix ..

[shamoo737]

I like to make a paste of white glue, water, and dirt, then I finger paint the area I want dirt in. The final step is to add some dry dirt to cover up any bald spots.

[Gyroflyer]

Wow, now this is new to me. Cooking the dirt? Makes sense. I can just see what the wife is going to say when she sees me doing this.LOL

[Philip H]

Wow, now this is new to me. Cooking the dirt? Makes sense. I can just see what the wife is going to say when she sees me doing this.LOL

Gives you an excuse to pick up a couple beat up cookie sheets from a tag/yard/garage sale.

[ednadolski]

Cooking the dirt? Makes sense. I can just see what the wife is going to say when she sees me doing this.LOL

I use an old toaster oven that I rescued from the outgoing trash.  The avoided hassles & comments are well worth the effort.   

One thing is, the natural dirt will look a lot darker under indoor lighting.  In Pelle Soeborg's recent scenery book, he uses the natural dirt and the results in the pictures are noticeably darker.

This whole topic reminds me of this:


Ed

[John]

use lighter color dirt?

[Gyroflyer]

LOL Ed. Thanks for the tip of colors.

Mark

[ednadolski]

use lighter color dirt?

Sort of - one trick is to mix in a bit of light-colored grout (non-sanded for N/Z scales).   It can take a bit of trial-and-error, depending upon how accurate you want your dert  ;D

Ed

[theshylion]

I use a few more steps on using "dirt" than any body has listed. Also my reason for using dirt is the "fineness" af material that a person can have especially when working in Z scale
I use dirt right from my front yard. I bake it twice for two different reasons. First to kill all the little "goodies" that might be in there
Second after the first baking I put it in water to remove all the "dead organic" that floats.
Third,  the second baking is to remove all the moisture and have a nice dry material to work with. I spread it nice and thin for easier drying and to prevent the mixture from making to many large chucks to be sifted through
Forth, I sift it through a Kitchen type strainer, a round mesh type about 5 to 6 inch diameter with wooden or plastic handle and use a wood spoon to work it through the mesh
Fifth, I take out a PORCELAIN MORTAR and PESTLE ( buy one on eBay for about $10.00) and start grinding the "dirt" to the consistency I want.
Sixth, I strain it again through a mesh type tea strainer ( to remove any small rocks that I can use other places and will not grind in the mortar) and store in a an air tight container till I use
This makes a fine "dirt" that to me is easy to deal with and glue
Dwight

[DKS]

Welcome to the Railwire, Dwight! Nice to see the Z group growing.

[Gozer the Gozerian]

I was down visiting my friend Bruce Petty in Dunsmuir a few weeks ago and commented on his ground cover on the Burbank Layout at his house. http://www.lariverrailroads.com/train_layout.html  He uses a lot of dirt for his ground cover and come to find it's mined from under an overpass on I-5.  Not sure what it is or where it's from but I gathered up a few buckets of the stuff for home use.  My guess there's a lot of clay in it as when too much moisture is applied it gets a bit pasty. I ended up going back to an old trick we used making architectural models and mixed 50-50 latex paint and wood glue and rolled out the undercoat.  Then using a sifter was able to get a nice uniform layer of ground cover.  I generally go with a darker color for the paint undercoat so you get a tiny bit of contrast.

Joe
MTL