Iam going to make a dio and i want to know how to make ground work, i would like to know what to use for ground . the base is going to be dirt with the ant- tank gun and 3 figues, so s what can i use for the gound,,,, i tryed a dio a while a go i just painted the base brown and then i put some kitty litter on it but it did not trun out so good so plz help me put bold text here

Hola man!
Dirt as in dirt dirt?
Ok, this is what I would do:
Mask off the entire base fram with paper tape, then get some plaster, and spread all over the base, make sure its not 100% level, as in reality that would be hard to find. Then let it dry, and after fully dry, apply Elmers Glue (white glue) generosly all over the base. Now get some fine dirt, yes real dirt form your garden or dig a hole in the yard or something and apply this to the still wet glue, Id also add static grass, as its also more likely to be some sort of grass instead of just dirt, after you apply the dirt and static grass, let it set for a couple of minutes, then turn it upside down in a bag or something and let everything that did not stick to the glue fall off the base and be out of your way. Then gently blow on it from the side so that the static grass will stand u like real grass. Now, let set for a few hours or over night. Then paint it with an airbrush, or with a regular brush with very diluted paint, so that the textures wont be covered in thick paint.
Hope this is to some help!

I think you should follow this link

http://fp.docdio.f9.co.uk/page/Simple%20diorama%20prt2/creating%20height.htm

A great place to start, and some excellent tips also. This is just one place, you can find all this information on here as well, but this is almost perfect guided steps, a good starting point you may say. This site was a great help to me when I started and still a good reference point

Something you can use is wood putty. It's more expensive than plaster, but I find it easier to work
with. It comes as a paste, and you can mix kitty litter , sand or aquarium stones to give it texture...
Once hard, if you want to modify a part, you can file or add whatever you want.

There is a good book from Osprey called Terrrain Modelling Master class, and written by Richard Windrow. Loaded with good hints, tips, and ideas. It would make a worthy addition to any reference library. Alternatively, they (Osprey) also publish in thier paperback series, a book on Diorama modelling which isn't bad The Shep Paine title,"How to build Dioramas" contains lots of useful information and is a well deserved classic.

Jack the reader

I have seen people mix the water-mix type plaster, kitty litter, and brown water color paint to represent dirt. Then to add grass if you want to you can use the static grass made by wwodland scenics (I think) and spray a elmers glue and water mix over it. Then a spray varnish so it will keep its color.

Mark

Wanna make Dirt....use dirt.

Like said before dig a hole in the garden on a spot where the soil is like sand. Get some of that sand, mix it with glue that is used to connect wood (the white one that will be "transparent" when dried).

put the mixture of sand and glue on a base and....there's the mud. Some drybrushing would help it to look even better.

Do a try-out first. When the mixture turns out to be too light in colour, just ad a fair amount of a dark acrylic paint to the glue.

Try and buy.....all this experiment will cost you is some glue and a bit of paint. Please tell me how the results turn out.

All these methods are gonna work. The biggest item you need is imagination. Try and build up your base first with styrene or thick cardboard to get a life-like terrain. Before your chosen mix hardens lay a thin opened plastic bag on it and press you vehicle and figures into where they are gonna stand. When thay are in their proper positions leave to harden for a day or two. Then lift off your vehicles and figures and peel back the plastic (maybe rub some lube on ´bottom side) bag. Now your items will sit properly and not have one wheel floating in mid air or a figure look like he is standing on his tip-Toes. You can also leave extra track marks like this to make the ground more life like. /Frank

I like that plastic bag trick very much ! That way I cankeap my model clean from plaster an d such !
thanks !