Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

So I want to build a race track for and event I will be running and I need to know the easiest way to model dirt. I would like for it to last as long as possible cause Im hoping this takes off enough that we can do it once a month or so.

How basic or detailed do you want it? Dirt is pretty generic so that could mean any number of things and there are many ways to achieve different effects..

The most straight forward thing would be:

PVA glue and sand on top on a large oval bit of MDF, layer up a bit more sand on the outside of "track". Seal with watered down PVA.

Spray dark brown, drybrush with a much lighter brown.
Seal it again with a coat of matt varnish to give a dusty matte effect.

Hope this is somewhat helpful.

Home Depot, tub of wood filler. Blend it up with chunks of plastic to give it some bulk. Then use a flat tip to layer it on.

Vallejo thick mud products are really nice; might not be quite what your looking for, but using it straight out the pot (it's a very large pot - plenty for terrain) it looks like, well... thick mud. More like wet mud than dry dirt, so again, maybe not what you're after, but it's an excellent product.

If you take GW technical paint...something mud forget it's name. You glob that on there (the more globs the more texture you'd get. It ends up looking like dried out dirt when it dries. Then you can paint it whatever color you want. It is one of the easiest ways to make a good looking base.

Yeah we need to know what sort of ground you want your race on. A desert dust bowl? A muddy rally track? Dried earth? All these things have different ways of acheiving the desired effect.

For a cheap approach, today I just went to the end of our drive where the street is and scooped up silt, sand and fine gravel along the road edge where it dries out. I sifted the larger bits out then mixed the finer stuff with cheap craft paint. When done it looked just like the GW gray technical dirt paint that's sitting on my shelf----I needed a bunch for a terrain project, though.

Daubed it on just like the GW product and it's pretty much the same result.

Another not so obvious option is to actually use dirt,yes shock horror. And before anybody tells you it will go mouldy,rubbish.

The best way to use it is to completely dry it out first and using a pestle and mortar grind it down to a fine power. Apply by mixing it with pva and water. There is really good guide on herseybrush somewhere where real dirt is used in a diarama for a stug.

I have used it for years with no problems what so ever. Also dirt is free.

Get a char coal grill and make some burgers. When your done take the charcoal bricks and put them in some kind of sack. Beat the crap out of the sack with a hammer. You get a lot of fine power that looks like ground dirt and a bunch of nicely shaped chunks that make for great stones and rocks of all kinds of sizes. Apply with elmers glue. Wait till dry. Glue it again to seal it. Prime and paint. The more hammering you do the smaller the rocks you will get. Hammer to taste.

Bonus. You got some delicious grill food.

 Lance845 wrote:
Get a char coal grill and make some burgers. When your done take the charcoal bricks and put them in some kind of sack. Beat the crap out of the sack with a hammer. You get a lot of fine power that looks like ground dirt and a bunch of nicely shaped chunks that make for great stones and rocks of all kinds of sizes. Apply with elmers glue. Wait till dry. Glue it again to seal it. Prime and paint. The more hammering you do the smaller the rocks you will get. Hammer to taste.

Bonus. You got some delicious grill food.

Doing a bbq tomorrow so going to try this out

 Lance845 wrote:
Get a char coal grill and make some burgers. When your done take the charcoal bricks and put them in some kind of sack. Beat the crap out of the sack with a hammer. You get a lot of fine power that looks like ground dirt and a bunch of nicely shaped chunks that make for great stones and rocks of all kinds of sizes. Apply with elmers glue. Wait till dry. Glue it again to seal it. Prime and paint. The more hammering you do the smaller the rocks you will get. Hammer to taste.

Bonus. You got some delicious grill food.

+1 for actual dirt.

Be careful with charcoal. A few issues I've run into:

- Contents. Read the bag and know what you are using. I've used Kingsford, the standard type and the Championship type.

- Smell. Hickory and mesquite are potent. If these are in the briquette, your models and carrying trays will pick up that scent.

- Dust. Even small bits of charcoal kick up black dust. Removing it is from a model is not trivial, it smears on top of acrylics and creates a fine texture.

- Adhesion. I used charcoal for rocks and applied them using PVA glue. The bottom surface of some rocks crumbled as the glue cured, causing them to fall off. In one case, a rock split beneath the foot of the model, forcing me to redo the base.

The thing to remember is charcoal is pourous, glue soaks into tiny cracks and contracts as it dries. This can cause the surface to break up in unpredictable ways. This crumbling can be great if you are doing scenic bases, charcoal is very easy to sand / sculpt. But you have to be careful for the secondary effects.

have never applied it to a already painted model. I charcoal the bases. Then prime and paint the whole model all at once.

That being said the black dust is real. Wear a disposable latex glove of something while your applying it.

Dirt. Actual dirt.
Mix it with white glue, then hit it with matte varnish once it dries.

Nothing beats the original.