Hi folks. I'm about to start on an industrial layout, usual stuff like a bit of track and a couple of warehouses. I would like to have the yard as an earth finish with a few weeds and things about. generally a bit run down and decrepit. What's the best way to represent earth? I did think of using sieved topsoil. Would that work?

Hello mate yes you can use sieved soil I,ve used it on my own layout however I since found out I should have baked it in the oven (whilst the domestic engineer is elsewhere obviously:twisted::twisted: ), to kill off any little nasties in the soil, I spread neat PVA on the base board then seived the soil on directly. Hope this helps have fun. Pete.

Thanks for that. I'm not completely bonkers then. As I'm the domestic engineer in the household I won't have a problem with the oven. Just got to find some nice topsoil now. Now found my source. I think there is a dry glue. Maybe first layer with PVA,then a mix of soil and Cascamite sprayed with water.  Our garden is covered with a couple of tons of Welsh slate.

Henry, I would think that Woodland Scenics or the like supply something representing soil, without the need to import all sorts of germs onto your layout.

Terry

Hi Henry,

I'm a fan of using different colours of earth (soil) on layouts. I too slow cook the soil then sieve it to a very fine dust, through a fine tea strainer. I use my 'soil' as a base for other scenic scatters to go on top. In the link below, you will see that a differnt colour is used for the road. This is the fine dust that is sieved out of crusher dust or road base.

See here : http://yourmodelrailway.net/view_topic.php?id=12116&forum_id=21&page=2#p213052

Cheers, Gary.

Hell Henry,

Have you tried Chinchilla dust which, is available in two colours, Grey/Brown and Sand from most pet stores.   It's fine, weed and vermin free, ideal for road, path or platform surfaces and looks very effective.  An added bonus is that a small bag goes a very long way!

John.

Or sieve some budgie grit….

PS  Gary, run a magnet through your road dust, you may be surprised just how much metallic 'muck' there is in there…

Doug