Making Your Own Scatter - From Sawdust

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The first thing to do is to get the raw material graded. I use a flour sieve for the finest grade and then two of my wifes colanders, each having different sized holes, to give me three basic grades.
When it comes to colouring the sawdust I have found the simplest way to colour small or large quantities is to use a water dye. Dylon is the brand I use. It comes in small metal tins and is very strong so be careful when handling it.
I use a foil container, about 6 or 7 inches by 3 or 4 inches and a couple of inches deep as this holds a surprisingly large amount of sawdust when it is soaked in water. Old plastic containers will do just as well of course.
Put about a half inch of water in the container and then shake a small quantity of the dye into it and stir gently until well mixed. It is then a simple matter of adding sawdust until it has soaked up all the dye. Remember that this soaking wet mixture is going to take a fair bit of drying so don't be tempted to mix up too much at once.




In the above photograph you can see some different shades of green dyed sawdust for use as scatter. These shades can then be mixed to produce even more shades. Very useful for grass land, hedges, tree foliage cover, bush cover. The same sawdust, dyed brown, is good for ballast, soil, mixed with green for dryer areas under trees.
Let your imagination have full reign here.
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