So here's my scenery schedule. First paint the raw blue foam board with an earth tone flat interior latex paint. Thin the the paint with water so it soaks it. Make ground cover from sawdust (I have a LOT of sawdust from the radial arm saw). Made three different colors. First try was with dark green RIT dye. It came out too dark. Second try was with light and medium green acrylic craft paint (Walmart $0.99). Add some paint to a quart or so of warm water in a big pot. I have the run of the kitchen since the divorce so I get to use the pots. Add a coffee can worth of sawdust and swirl it around until the stuff is all colored. Dry the now green sawdust. Warm sunlight on a calm day works and so does putting it on a cookie sheet in a warm oven.
While the paint is still wet, sift the green sawdust into the wet paint. I made a couple of sifters from wood scrap and a window screen patch. Sift your base color sawdust everywhere. Then go over it with some accent color sawdust (lighter or darker) and fill in the thin spots. The multi tone look improves things.
Notice that the cat has finally gotten up the courage to leap onto the layout to stalk the trains. To prevent awful painted footprints on the rugs I run a train directly at the stupid beast. It flees, dry pawed.
One quarter of the layout is drying as I write this.
David Starr www.newsnorthwoods.blogspot.com
Excellent. Be sure to post some photos. I am very interested in seeing how it turns out. For decades dyed sawdust was the primary scenery element- and in my opinion it's no less effective today when used properly. I have long felt that although modern scenery materials are very nice and give good results with a minimum of fuss, they make many modelers "think inside the box" that it's the only way to make scenery and without their use nothing can be done. Quite the opposite is true.
The Dixie D Short Line "Lux Lucet In Tenebris Nihil Igitur Mors Est Ad Nos 2001"