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Sick and at home this new years eve im painting some Astra Militarum and am looking for advice!

I will want to make it look like my soldiers have been marching through a battlefield of ash and sot but im unsure how best to do this? My first thought was simply to use my airbrush to "dust" with black from a distance. And from low angle so it looks like it been stirred up from the ground as theyve been walking.

Before I potentially ruin a model trying this approach, if anyone has any advice or tips to this then ill be happy to hear them!

Thanks in advance

STOP! simply use a complete dry medium-large brush and dip in appropriate dry powder and apply over intended areas. Then spray matte varnish to seal.

I personally wouldn't use black soot on infantry models other than gun barrels imitating soot, on boots and dirty fatigue, use light/dark brown. On vehicle vents- use orange, then black.

The ash and sand dry powder are hard to use to show, I only do it on last steps on tank tracks and backpacks.

Alrite, tnx for the warning
It didnt make me confident in my plans but at least youve probably saved me a lot of hassle!

Ive never used a powder of any sort before, my painting experience is very limited. Would you advice against the whole ash/sot idea or just using black for it?