Hello everyone,

I am trying to make a diorama that has a dried up river bed in it. Now I have tried a few different techniques in an attempt to make it look right. They have included wall filler dried out very quicky, didn't work.

I have seen it done in a magazine where they used something they called Florist's earth. Now I think that it was some kind of translation problem as I have asked and checked online and nothing is listed as Florist's earth.


Thanks for the help.

Robin
(ps I am in the UK)

I've used actual dirty before which has turned out well. I just got a cup of dirt, filtered out any debris mixed in water and white glue to make it a paste and applied it to the base. It dries perfectly flat and has a dried light earth color, because it is. It can be tinted to different colors while mixing or after it dries. Like anything though, apply it in thin layers or it will crack while drying.

i have used fine sawdust mixed with a 60/40 mix of white carpenter's glue (Elmer's) and water. it's workable and depending on the coarseness of the sawdust can depict different types of terrain. it dries hard, doesn't crack and takes paint well. the glue/water mixture can be adjusted as well to your liking.

somewhere else here another diorama builder mentioned using the ultra fine sand used in ashtrays like those typically found in front of public buildings, or once upon a time in lobbies. he was using it for a desert diorama, but i could see multiple uses for it including a river bed.

Hey Robin
What is the exact look you are going for? I reckon nothing says dried creek bed more than the cracked look. Tell us the setting of your proposed diorama. If it is the cracked look you are going for, I know that my local hardware here in Oz had in its arts/crafts section a paste which actually dried to deliberately crack for effect, so know that there is this type of product out there....
Brad

Sorry New to this site and had difficutly loading an image of what I was trying to create



Hopefully that'll give a better idea

R

You can get it in a spray can - pop down to Wilkinsons/Boyes (or similar type of shop) if you have one near and look in the spray paint section - its used for making furniture look old. You spray a nice thick layer on and hey presto it goes crazy - basically exactly what you don't want in a spray paint 99.9% of the time. Apart from this time.

Failing that, get hold of any "plasti-cote" spray can and spray a really thick layer on - it will do the same and crack - learnt this the hard way on a Tamiya Heinkel kit.

Hope this helps

John