I just completed Tamiya's Chevy LRDP vehicle and am putting it on a wooden plaque base. I put some balsa strips around the top of the base to act as a sort of 'frame' and plan to add just a tad bit of enviornment inside this 'frame' to see the vehicle off a little from the wooden base..

I thought of adding some small pebbles here and there to represent some rocks. Then I thought about adding a combination of play sand and the gravel type of stuff that you find along the roadway for the rest of it. Maybe even some kitty litter. Would this be the right thing to do here?

Also, can I use the white glue/water combination used by model railroaders to hold this 'enviornment' in place? And should it be then oil washed with some appropriate oil washes to get a little more 'desert' coloring to it? And if so, what colors would you recommend that would be accurate to this area of the world.

This is my very first time at building anything resembling a diorama, so any help would be greately appreciated here.

Thanks in advance. sgirty

Yes, and Yes. The thoughts you had are right up the correct alley.
What I did for a desert scene was this
I rounded up these supplies
Kitty Litter or Small gravel
Spackle from DIY store.
Sand (depending on your likes)
Water Glue mix
Pastels
I layed down a layer of wall spackle on a prepared base - Put a water proof coating on the board to prevent warping.
I smoothed and formed the spackle in the desired sand dunes. Being spackle I kept then small .25". If you want big ones fill in the base of them with styrofoam then cover with spackle.
Then you can choose to pour on the sand and press it into the spackle.
Then add the gravel litter using white glue and or white glue water mix.
I painted mine by airbrushing Tamiya Red brown as a base. Then I airbrushed Dark yellow over that. I then came back in with various washes of various shades of yellow/tan/brown to fill in shadows and dark areas. No science or measured mixing, just what looked good. Then I drybrushed hightlights over that using lightened dark yellow and lighted brown etc.
Then I brushed pastels on the whole thing mixing and matching the tones and colors.
Don't forget to extend the color to the AFV. I had already pastelled the Panzer II with some desert yellows and brown so I used the same scheme on the ground to keep continutity.

[quote[I layed down a layer of wall spackle on a prepared base - Put a water proof coating on the board to prevent warping./quote]

VERY IMPORTANT! Man Did I screw the pooch today. I bought a cute little base for my StUG today at wally world for 2 bucks, Hydrocal, watercolors, pastels, white glue and water, then static grass...all that water on that basswood.....WARP CITY! I feel like a moron, all that time, Well live and learn.

Yes, the sand and kitty litter should work with washes and I definitely think pastels would be the order of the day. The Sahara is HOT and DRY, and DUSTY. Then, you go downtown Cairo....well, anyway....

Sgirty

What you have to keep in mind is that most Desserts consist of 80% rocks and 20% sand.
I have done a dessert dio myself a couple of years ago with a PZKFW3 in DAK colors where the crew is eating in the shadow of the tank. (funny thing is that the tank is standing on the edge of an old crater that got filled through the months the crew is sitting in the crater)
The groundworks were made like this... I first created the groundworks base with styrofoam. And cut the crater out of it. then covered the whole thing with wallspackle. While this was still wet I sprinkled the first layer of sand over it and I pushed some small pebbles, that I found outside, in it. I let the whole thing dry. When everything was dry I sprayed diluted white glue on it. then sprinkled Kitty litter over it. and a new layer of sand. I allowed this to dry. When that was dry I took some paints and gave the whole ground a drybrush with several shades of lightbrown to almost yellow and white.

I hope this helps a bit.
By the way that`s a nice kit you are going to place in a dessert dio. I have the same vehicle at home and I love it

Problem is guys most rocks in the desert are rather small. In proportion kitty litter (at least the kind I've seen) is like small boulders. I use a very fine grain sand that I sift out . THe remainder of the sift is what I use to sprinkle on top for my main base of rocks, then I use some fish tank sized gravel and lightly spinkle that. Put a few (depending on size of diorama)larger rocks but very few. Most of pebbles should be smaller than your figures feet Keep in mind, he's doing the Arabian desert which is not the deserts of northern US

In a nutshell, the guys have explained everything you need for a desert environment. One little piece extra..... light greys can add be used also for stone, etc, for a little contrast.
A lot of desert scenes are flat with some rocks in the corners, which can be a little boring, and also needs to be well done to portray it properly/realistically. I like adding a little contour to the scenes, like a rock ledge for example as a background. Check about in the gallery or other sites galleries for inspiration. Even an old ruin can be quite effective as scenery and can add so much to the overall effect. And sand stone buildings are usually very simple so its a good starting point for your dio career!

I've a question? What do you use to waterproof the board?

Larry and I have been sharing tips of building our LRDG Chevys and I've heard that the water in celuclay or spackle can warp the board but I haven't heard what a good product is to stop this.

I've used materials sold by Woodland Scenics. I'v e found the ballast rock, Talus (rock debris), ,and Turf work great. THey come in varous sizes and colors. It's worked good on a few dio I've done.

Check out my posts of the 4.2 Inch Mortar (M30) and the M966 HMMWV. IF you can't find them go to my website at http://train.missouri.org/~emgeer/book_index_model.htm

Hope this helps

Seal that base, Halfyank. Put on a couple of some kind of oil base paint, laquer, shellac, anything. Clear or otherwise. Oh, make sure you do both the top and bottom at the same time because I have had bases warp when sealing them if you do the top and then wait to do the bottom. Hope this helps...

The wooden base I'm using for this desert project has been sealed with two coats of polyurethane. And in the 'box' section where I want to put the 'enviornment' I gave it a good scratching with a dull screwdriver blade and am going to give that area another coat of this sealer before adding the enviornment. Hope that this is enought to keep the base from warping.

Now yesterday I was thinking about some 'rocks' to put down this this scene when I happened to look at the tires on my truck. The treads on these tires are always picking up little stones in them, and because of the particular design of this tread, they seem to pick up more gravel than any vehicle I've ever owned before. Now on removing some of these stones I found that the part of the stone that has been exposed to the pavement is flat, while the rest, lodged up in the tread itself, still has it's natural shape. So I think I'll start digging these out and setting them aside to use in this in this setting. The 'box' part of the scene is made out of no more than 1/32" or 1/16th" tall balsa wood strips so these stones may just be big enough to work here. And since this area I'm going to fill in is only just a tad bit bigger than the vehicle itself, in a month or two I should have collected enough of these stones out of the tires to use them in this base. I got about 50 or so of these stones out of the tires just yesterday. Think this will work?

Once these stones are down I have a small bucket of construction type sand that I'll use to fill in around these rocks. Of course from what I've read here, I'll need lots of these stones, so it may take a little longer than a month or so to get enough of them to fill in the base properly. Of course it's not like this is the only model I've got to work on till I get enough! Ha, ha!

Anyway it's worth a shot. Nothing tried nothing gained.

Take care and thanks for all the good answers here. sgirty