Im starting a diorama which is based on the airplane boneyards out in arizona. I would like to do that cement with grass growing inbetween the cracks look. Part of it is going to be that cement look the rest of it will be desert sand.

It may sound too simple, but I just use Spakling (sp) compound, you know wall puddy.

Put it on use a puddy knife, scour it before it dries with a knife, for the "cracks, then to get all the different shades you see in old cement I give it a wash from the bottom I clean my brushes in.

Looks like cement to me. You can look in my album on MSN "CRS efforts" most of my planes are setting on it.

For the odd grass growing in the cracks, a little thinned white glue where you think there should be grass, then use a salt shaker to apply "scale grass" and blow away excess.

Chuck

This tarmac is a piece of sheet styrene. I measured and drew on seams. Then I used a razor saw to etche in the seams.

I painted a base of dark gray. Then I spayed on a light coat of white/greay blend along the seam lines. Then washed with black.
To age this in the desert - you could use static grass over a base of whte glue and water along the seams.
You could also add white glue and water mix in a puddle form along the edges. Then add on top a bit of sifted sand or crushed kitty litter or sifted dirt.
The water/glue mix is the key here. Make it like a drifted sand dune at the beach.

What I'd counsel : plaster of paris in a photo frame.

You place your frame horizontaly, and make sure it's sealed. in that, you pour your plaster, making a nice flat surface (use a ruller or something like that to make it flat).
When it's dry, scribe the seams and cracks in !

i dont know who makes em but i saw this stuff, looked like tape but ya just rol out and stick down ya runway and tarmac squares, looked very real, but dont know who makes it, lol, im real helpful hey? #:-) cheers

Plaster of Paris creates crack if kept for a long time making the cracks more realistic. Try putting it in the sun to form real cracks but not too much or it will me ruined.

Some nice tips here!

I´m just making similar airfield surface and I used corn flakes package for that. Cut out those squares, leave some gap between them, fill the gaps with wall putty. You can paint it even with water colours or whatever, and there is some grain in the material for free. For some nice wear effects, try rubbing the painted, dry surface with sandpaper. Cracks would be very small in scale, so you can carve them in the painted surface and add a dark wash.
This is what I´ll do, I´ll post pictures when I get that far!



Toni

Once I've gotten my airfield painted a base color of a neutral gray, I use a black wash to emphasize the cracks and weather using shades of gray pastels lighter and darker than the base paint color.