SeeYou190Believe it or not, the best representation I have seen of a sand pile was in the TYCO sanding house. Most of the kit is garbage, but that sand pile is a work of art. I have used two of them in scratch built sand houses in the past, and I have another stashed for my final layout.
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Well... what luck.
I found another Tyco Sand House in a swap sale today in Northern Georgia. As you can see, the pile that comes in this kit really looks like a piles of sand. Sand does not mound up like coal or gravel. This is the only kit I have seen that gets the pile of sand right. Now I have two of them stashed!
-Kevin
Living the dream.
I would start by sculpting a base from pink foam. Then I would use Rustoleum textured spray paint. The texturing in the paint will simulate a pile of sand but it's not as large-grained as using real sand would be.
This is one painted with the speckled variety:
My station was done with a fine textured tan without speckles. By using textured paint, you eliminate the spectular reflections that you would otherwise get from other paints, even flat sprays.
For beaches and shorelines, I use play sand from my daughter's old sanbox.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
I used fine sand I found by a new telephone pole the utility company installed by my house. I did the foam, shap, glue and sand thing mentioned before. came out nice. Also used some white glue arround the bin and on the edges of the bin to simulate spilled sand.
Gary
Deane JohnsonIt's about a foot away.
That close and your best bet is probably the styrofoam that josephbw mentioned earlier.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
It's about a foot away. The layout is 53" above the floor, and this model will be in about a foot or a little less.
I'm pretty comfortable with just paint, and possible some grit of some sort, maybe not. Experiementing now will be the way to go.
Once on the layout, how far away will the sandpile be? If it will be 2' or more viewing distance, then people won't be able to see a coarser texture, just the pile.
I bought a small bag of craft sand at Michaels and carved a foam insert to fit the sand box of the sand house, then applied white glue to the foam and sprinkled the sand on top. After it dried, it sure looked like a pile of sand to me. The grain size is fine using the 3 foot rule.
Cedarwoodron
To model sand on my layout, i used the fine sand used by a powder coat company not far from where I live. However, you can probably buy some from some of the (real rock) ballast manufactures such as Arizona Rock and Mineral Company.
Have Fun.... Bob.
When I built mine, I made a styrofoam base, covered it in Elmers, and spread ground Ginger on top. Ground ginger is about the same size as HO sand, and it smells good too.
Good suggestions here. I'm paying attention to all of them. I'll probablly end up with a combination of several of them put together in the end. I appreciate the responses.
The sand will have no texture when shrunk down to 1/87 scale. What makes sand look believable is the shape of the pile. Sand does not form mounds like gravel or coal. It forms ridges, cliffs, and peaks.
Believe it or not, the best representation I have seen of a sand pile was in the TYCO sanding house. Most of the kit is garbage, but that sand pile is a work of art. I have used two of them in scratch built sand houses in the past, and I have another stashed for my final layout.
I have only ever painted mine light gray and airbrushed white highlights along the peaks. It makes for one very believable pile of sand.
Tile grout or thin set. Eyedropper water on it to make it set and then weather as desired.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
I used a small screen to separate fine sand from regular sand and used that result on the Mt Hood club layout. Looks very nice, but I do not have a picture. Sorry 'bout that.
mbinsewiSomething I just thought off, use the carved foam to shape the piles, paint them a neutral tan color, and sprinkle the fine sand you have over the top, on the wet paint, so when the paint dries, the sand stays. Mike.
I agree with Mike........been there, but used ballast cement after it was painted. Children's play sand, it is finer and strained.
Take Care!
Frank
Tan-colored sanded grout would work pretty well to sprinkle over a carved shape as Mike suggests. I used it as sand along a waterway on the layout, and what I think was labelled "chocolate brown" as dirt under the grass.
http://cs.trains.com/mrr/m/mrr-layouts/2288403.aspx
No coating, just carved, sanded (using sandpaper, to smooth out the piles) to the shape I wanted, then painted to look like sand.
Something I just thought off, use the carved foam to shape the piles, paint them a neutral tan color, and sprinkle the fine sand you have over the top, on the wet paint, so when the paint dries, the sand stays.
Mike.
My You Tube
They look nice in the photo. Did you coat them with anything, or just paint the carved blocks with the appropriate color paint?
I did these raw silica sand loads, heading for a frac sand refinery, using styrofoam blocks, carved and sanded to get the effect I wanted then painted them.
It's not a good picture, but they did turn out pretty good.
I'm about to build the Walther's diesel sanding facility. It has the open bin that holds the sand. Seems that leaving it empty would be a little lacking in realism.
I'm wondering what to use for scale sand. I have some really fine real sand that might work, but a pile of that's going to be a bit messy as it get scattered about, or loaded with dust.
Any thoughts on how to achieve a pile of sand look?
Thanks
Deane