HO Scale Sand

[wrench567]

  Sand from any source is still sand and to an HO scale person would be rocks. Silt and stone dust would be a better representation. The sand in my hopper cars that come out of my HO scale sand and gravel plant is silt mixed with paint or thinned white glue on a piece of painted styrene. The sand on the conveyors is the same.

[josephbw]

Whole wheat flour might work.

Joe

[Overmod]

josephbw

Whole wheat flour might work.

Fine and powdered sugar does, too, and you can even stain and re-crush it.

Until the rats and bugs and molds discover it.

[Mark R.]

When you get down to fine material like sand, the representation doesn't really scale well. HO scale sand wouldn't much more than a powder. At that point, it is no longer a good representation to full scale eyes. 

I've used actual beach sand finely sifted - obviously the sand in my area will probably be different that yours. To the naked eye, the color is correct and I can still still enough texture for my mind to say it's sand. Any finer, it would lose any kind of visible texture and lose the effect of what it's supposed to represent.

Mark.

[richhotrain]

Mark R.

When you get down to fine material like sand, the representation doesn't really scale well. HO scale sand wouldn't much more than a powder. At that point, it is no longer a good representation to full scale eyes. 

I've used actual beach sand finely sifted - obviously the sand in my area will probably be different that yours. To the naked eye, the color is correct and I can still still enough texture for my mind to say it's sand. Any finer, it would lose any kind of visible texture and lose the effect of what it's supposed to represent.

Mark. 

I agree with Mark. The smaller the object, the more difficult it is to scale. A grain of sand is imperceptible in HO scale. So, the best advice is to do the best you can to represent sand in HO scale without rendering it undetectable. Here is a close up view of Woodland Scenics Fine Ballast Buff. Good enough?

Rich

[Doughless]

Yes, perception matters more than actual sight and I think the eye can also perceive texture when its comparing it to something that has none.  Or more texture compared to less. Smoothed and dried spackle still has more texture than painted plywood even though you can't see the individual bumps, IMO.  

The sand ground cover is going to have to be finer than the adjacent gravel road, which will have to be finer than the adjacent track ballast...which can't be too coarse to begin with.

And then there is the question of what to do with the adjacent concrete parking lot.  Yet a 4th texture.

Using food or anything organic invites bacteria and mold.  No thanks.

Still need to head to Michael's and check out the different grades of artists sands.

Maybe I should think about what to use for ballast, gravel roads, concrete parking lots, and sand ground cover to get the proper sequence correct.  The eyes might not see the difference, but could percieve it correctly.  Just thinking out loud.

[SeeYou190]

Doughless

Using food or anything organic invites bacteria and mold

We had a local modeler that used coffee grinds for scenery. He mixed them with Borax and said that kept away insects, bacteria, and mold.

I would never try it.

-Kevin