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Not flamin' just explain' My military career as well as vacations have taken me to several regions of the world. I've been on US Pacific and Altantic beaches, several Caribbean Island beaches, a few of the Mediterian beaches (Greece, Italy, Spain and Egypt) and a couple areas of the Red Sea region. I lived in Cairo, Egypt (Sahara desert) for a year and currently live in the Phoenix (Mohave desert). Due to the make up of the different geographical regions sand is not just sand. Take the Caribbean Sea. Beaches of the CS are made from ground coral and shell thus the white/pinkish color and is more course than most other sands. The US Pacific coast beaches are a darker brown, due to the clay content, than Atlantic coast beaches which are more of a light brown/grey color due the a higher level of iron. Atlantic coast beach sand is finer than Pacific coast. You wouldn't think of driving or parking on a So. CA beach without 4-wheel drive because it is more course and doesn't pack down as hard. But Daytona Beach, FL is okay to drive and park on with any kind of car of truck. Guam's beaches are a lighter color than US Pacific beaches due the addition of coral from the coral reefs in that area and is more course than US Pacific beach sand. So much for the lesson in Sandology. When modeling you should keep in mind the geographic area and what color the dirt and sand is and how course it is. For instance, here in AZ the mountaineous area of Northern and East Central AZ (Flagstaff/Williams and Payson) would be darker and finer dirt, due the the decomposistion of the Pine trees. West Central AZ (Sedona/Prescott) is very red in color. Southern AZ (Phoenix/Tuscon) which is desert, yes 1/3 of AZ is desert, is much lighter and more course. I live in Phoenix but my layout is modeled after the Santa Fe RR along Route 66 in Northern AZ. So the "dirt" on my layout I make from ground eggshell and tinted/colored to match the various regions along Route 66.
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