Hello, I am just wondering how you paint/colour plaster, basic ground surfaces to make them look like dirt, here is a strange little thing, dirt is often made up of different colours and textures, a bit of mud here the odd stone there and shades of dirt there. I partly painted some of my dio, and although it looks nice and muddy, it still looks like its been painted, which isn't too bad until I come across a section that simply requires dirt, and in particular the colour of dirt - does anyone actually know what the colour of basic dirt should be and how this would be applied. Look forward to your reply.

Hey Alec
Have you considered tinting the plaster prior to pouring? You can get oxides that are used for tinting render cement mix etc. from the hardware that come in natural colours ie. a variety of brown shades. I often bulk out the ground work with plaster, and then leave a top layer which is generally a water mixed wood putty which can be shaped better than plaster. Both are tinted prior to pouring as mentioned, so that any refining/carving back will not reveal stark white plaster...
The dirt problem you have is probably based around this fact, in that the plaster is rather devoid of feature. Try adding some sand/odd pebbles into the original mix to achieve a more haphazard surface.
These are just a couple of tips; I hope others will chip in

Brad
P.S. Almost forgot... check out tile grout which is in premixed shades that may be of use...

Hello Bradley J, thanks for the info, its always good to hear from others especially on ground work problems as dirt, and as I am writing this I can see how daft it appears to be, however, considering everything goes onto a base that's either covered in grass, mud and stone, there is dirt, and the problem of making the base that's 'dirt based' looking like dirt rather than something that's been painted, which at the moment my dio base looks like, so I thought I'd ask and see what colours would be used, or how dirt would be layered to give it a more life-like appearence. When I was building (scratch) everything was going to well as I simply pleased myself what I was building and what it will look like, then I came onto the subject of the surfaces, and painted a nice muddy look to my cannons, okay so far, then I thought, its not going to be all mud, I'll need grass and some open dirt, and when I painted as before, the dirt was rubbish, it looked like a painted brown section of a diorama and nothing like dirt, and although there are several types and shades of dirt, you only have to look in your garden to see that, its getting the darn thing onto the dio surface which has really got me confused.