Hi,

does anyone know a quick and cheap way to obtain 1/72 scale sand for my first diorama?

Thanks

First of all welcome aboard!!! Did you try with... sand? There's some quartz sand that schools use to let the children play (mainly nursery schools). It's grain is extremely fine and I don't think they'll mind to give one or two handful of it to you for free...
Ciao

i built a desert storm diorama in 1/72 a few years back and i used builders sand the kind used for making cement etc
the grains are really fine and the effect was good but you might want to paint it because its very shiny because of the quartz, so tone it down with some nice sandy colours

joe

woodland scenics has some fine stuff as well in very good sand colours of extremely fine structure, pick this up at you modeltrainspecialist

lewstherin_7

Go to your local pet shop and pic up some Chinchilla bath sand. It is extremely extremely fine sand that those animals use to "bathe" in.


Steve

I would definitely go with fine real sand, but any kind of powder would work once you paint it, even different things you could probably find at home, baking powder, sugar?

I agree, here we call it Chinchilla dust.

I'd use the washed play sand. Extremely fine grained, almost powder. Most Home Depot/Lowes carry it. Alos sand for concrete mixing is very fine and would work.

Thank you all for your responses. What about using flour? Could it work?

Thanks

You can get really find sand at some craft shops. I know that Michaels has it.

lewstherin_7 usually is best to avoid any organic material...
Ciao

Why is that?

Little troopies joining the Cause.



(bugs-ants, flies, etc.)

Is that really the reason, because after painting and sealing, I can't imagine them being a problem?

g'day, i just used the fine quartz sand ya get at the beach, not the wet crap that is closer to the water, use the nice fine dry stuff ya get, it looks in scale because its really fine, cheers

Products like these come cheap and it's tempting to use them for sand or snow. BUT.
It is wise to stay away from edibles like sugar and baking powder for two reasons :
- they may discolor - I'd be tempted to say they WILL discolor - within months.
- they attract bugs.

Plenty of other material to choose from.

Another warning : Microballoons may give nice results, but I'd advise against those for safety reasons. You don't want any of it in your eyes or in your lungs. And boy does this stuff fly around while you handle it ! This powder is extremely fine and extremely light, so it's all over your modeling room in no time. Unless you have proper safety gear (goggles and breathing mask), stay clear from this. This is by far the most disturbing product I ever worked with.

So what CAN you use ? Even fine "real" sand would not be acceptable when you multiply the grain size with 72 : unless you want to show a pebble beach. But only real pro's would tell the difference and I still think it should be your first choice.
Special material like woodlands may look excellent, but it'll be a lot more expensive.

You may want to consider painting the sand. Deserts (if that's what you look for) look a lot more yellow than most beaches. Spraypainting sand gives nice results if you're equiped for that.

After typing this, I checked out the jar of Microballoons I have here to see if there's any danger label on them. There's the black "X" on an orange background...
Just by holding and reading the jar (which is well closed) my eyes are now irritated. Probably from tiny particles of microballoons being stuck to the outside and the lid... !