how do you model sand?

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**usernamesareannoying**

probably a silly question but can I just use beach sand over pva to make a sandy base?
I want to make a building that is wind blown and being consumed by sand.

thoughts?

**Elbows**

You can. The problem is that real sand will tend to sink into the glue and you end up with a pasty-glue appearance rather than real sand. I suspect there are ways of using various glues to attach proper sand though.

**Guildenstern**

You can use something like a extra heavy gel medium to build up layers, silicon caulking, or dry wall spackle to make the shape you want. Let it dry, cover it with PVA and then use the sand on top of it.

heavy gel medium can get expensive, but works very well. Silicon caulking can be very useful but you'll want to sand it down/shape it as you go and it's rather a chaotic process. Dry wall spackle is inexpensive, easy to work with but can be brittle for heavy layers in my experience.

**Desubot**

Like a dunes?

sand of that scale would be freakishly small

it would be easier to just use drywall Spackle. mold the dunes and paint it sand colored.

or wood filler. anything with grit.

you can also make your own grit with color pigment if you want to skip the painting part.

**JamesY**

If you get sand from the beach you need to dry it out first. An hour in the oven on full heat will get rid of the moisture and the glue will hold it.

**usernamesareannoying**

thanks all.

yeah des, while not quite dunes its the same idea. think of a wall with a very high mound of sand against it from years of the wind blowing the sand at it.

I think I may try the spackle and paint idea although it kind of freaks me out how brittle spackle can be.

**Desubot**

That seems more a job for millput. build it up and use water and your finger to smooth it out significantly.

you could get away with adding grit to it too i think though try it on a test piece.

if you are afraid of spackle breaking then try dip plastic wood filler. though i have no full on experience with it on models.

**Jadenim**

I've had good results using air-drying clay (a bit like Fymo) as a base for terrain. It's pretty cheap, you can get it from most craft stores and it's easy to shape and sculpt. Plus it's really light when it dries, so you don't have to worry about models over balancing or plummeting to the floor if dropped!

**leopard**

I went with filler

painted with cheap emulsion paints, same stuff on the grots as the small board under them.

sand works, but it works as corse gravel in this scale, if you want sand as noted above use a filler, I added a bit of water to get a smooth look but easy to leave it a bit drier for a rougher look, and if you get the dry powder fillers you can sprinkle a little bit over the still wet base for further texture.

If you're really lazy and have a few to do can even mix a bit of the emulsion into the filler

**SirDonlad**

I seive builders hardcore to get rock dust which works well as scaled sand

Spoiler:

**usernamesareannoying**

those are great examples guys and definitely on the right track of what I have in mind.

@leopard - how did you achieve the wave look? is its just a finger through the filler or did you use something?

@sirdonald - almost the exact idea I am looking for only mine will be applied to buildings. heaped sand around doorways and support columns etc.

@desubot - is that DAP plastic wood filler? I found it online but I wish I had some experience with it. is it like a putty?

**Desubot**

usernamesareannoying wrote:
those are great examples guys and definitely on the right track of what I have in mind.

@leopard - how did you achieve the wave look? is its just a finger through the filler or did you use something?

@sirdonald - almost the exact idea I am looking for only mine will be applied to buildings. heaped sand around doorways and support columns etc.

@desubot - is that DAP plastic wood filler? I found it online but I wish I had some experience with it. is it like a putty?

its like this stuff. its like drywall spackle but it a solvent based plastic putty with wood filler in it.

I will however say im not sure how it will react to plastic. i believe some people use acetone to thin the stuff so it might be too harsh, or just right that it will melt and bond with whatever you make and so will be 100% solid ymmv. sounds like the best thing to do would be to drop by your local home desperate and check out all the different fillers and spackle till you find the kind you like. and just buy the smallest can.

**Stormwall**

Use milliput for the dune shape, cover in a light glue coating, let that dry just a tad and then dunk in sand.

**SirDonlad**

usernamesareannoying wrote:
@sirdonald - almost the exact idea I am looking for only mine will be applied to buildings. heaped sand around doorways and support columns etc.

if you use the rock dust method, use superglue to stick the finest dust by dabbing a small blob on an area and blowing on it to spread the glue as thinly as it's surface tension allows and then pour the rock dust over the glue.

If you add rock dust to too much glue, it saturates the dust before drying and looks weird. It's not the end of the world, but it's annoying having to go over it again.

**Morat_**

Some sound advice already here. When it comes to using sand on bases, the one most worth using is bird sand, I swear by the stuff. It's very cheap bought from pet shops and it absorbs moisture in pva to stick down rock solidly. It's a particularly fine grade too, so unlike some sands it doesn't look like rocks on the base at 28mm scale.

I've covered entire gaming tables in it and while it's a harsh surface to lean on or drag unfortunate metal models across, those boards last pretty much indefinitely.

**leopard**

It's put on using a coffee stirring stick like a drunken plasterer, just played with until I'm happy with it.

Painted a clay colour, drybrushed a mid cream then a near white, all cheap emulsion paint.

Very cheap to do for my dels and actual terrain to match

**prowla**

Aquarium and pet shops also have different grits of aquarium sand, which is sorted and relatively cheap. Of course it's usually not superfine. I've usually attached it with thin brushed layer of normal PVA + clear coat on top.