Hi all,

While I searched and thought threads or posts on this topic would be easy to find, I've had no luck thus far. I'm interesting in what techniques one might use to create a dark soil look. I am contemplating my very first diorama, and the concept is a two level base, with a short heavily slanted 'wall' (maybe 2 inches high, at maybe a 60-70 degree angle) where that wall would actually be fresh soil. I have an image of what I'd like to do, but I believe it's copyrighted, so I can't post. Hopefully I've satisfactorily described what I'm trying to create. The flat areas of the diorama (where I plan to put one 1/35 IDF tank, each) would probably be a more 'hardpan' look, similar to that very cool beginner's 'start from scratch' thread that's been recently post here. I'm picturing the soil to be sort of the 'edge of a short ridge' between the 2 flat areas, if that makes sense. Any help would be hugely appreciated. It's going to be some time until I do this thing, as I haven't even begun building the 2 tanks that will be part of this diorama yet, but no sense in putting off the needed info until the last minute!

Hi Curtis,

I do not use any other method than the 1 basic style.This has been trialed for 20 or so years and I'm happy with the result
Interior or exterior wall filler mixed with acrylic paints.
Use dark brown and black together and mix and blend as required.The filler dries to a light shade.

The black and dark brown work the best mixed with the wall filler .Apply to styrafoam base .I do not have an example of the base for the Nashorn although I am currently working on the Jagd to show the way
here is an example I am working on at present



Work on dark base and lighten as required.

here is the example for the Nashorn.



final result


I hope you like it .

Sorry I have no build blogs ,but this is the way to present a model.

Cheers
Michael

You could try Tamiya Texture Paints- their 'Soil Effect-Dark Earth' varietes are pretty good and dry rock hard. Here's a link:

http://www.tamiya.com/english/products/87109dark_earth/index.htm

I don't use them in the way shown- I tend to spread them over an area I have covered with household filler- the great thing about the Tamiya paints is that once it is dry you can use acrylics, enamels or oils to change the tones- you can add washes, drybrushing, pigments etc to get the exact look you need- the color out of the tub is too bland and unrealistic for 1/35 scale so its kind of necessary to do some extra work with it.

I hope this helps you out a bit.