Hi all,

What's the best way to create a Desert in N.Africa? Shall I use fine sand or can I pick from my back yard? How do I "stick" the sand onto my base and make sure that they won't be blown away by my air-brush while coloring?

My story is to have 2 VP's SAS "originals" resting beside their jeep after a successful raid, just a simple one, any advice is highly appreciated!

There will probably be a lot of different answers to this question....but here goes mine.
Sand and kitty litter.....that's right......the stuff cats poop in.......make sure it's not the used variety though buy a small bag of it just for this purpose...or if you already have some for your cat....use a small amount out of the bag.....mix the two together......Sand + Kitty Litter....now pick your base.....a piece of wood let's say....I would start with a base coat of Celluclay mixed with water and a lot of white glue....spread it over your base....then when you're happy with the shape and size.....sprikle the sand/kitty litter mixture over this fairly heavily and gently pat it down to emmbed some of it into the Celluclay....if you have any vehicles in your scene...now is the time to push them into the ground work to make the indents for them to sit in later.....then remove them....now set this aside for a day or 2 to dry.....and blow off or dump off the excess....if there are bare spots you can make a mixture of white glue and water about 50/50 and put it on those spots and sprinkle more of the sand mix onto it...let it dry and so on and so forth.
Go into the Gallery and under Dioramas look for Folgore's folder.....he has done the nicest desert diorama I've seen in years......study how he made the ground look....you can't go wrong when looking at a master's work.

I found some "Hamster Litter" which is a finer grade than standard Kitty litter, sort of between sand and kitty litter. Comes in smaller bags too. I used almost the same technique as described by Diomain and it worked pretty well on a first attempt.

Good Luck

Roger

With me it depends on what type of desert sand I am gong for. If I want the kind with sand dunes I will usually use finely sifted dirt without any rocks. Otherwise I will use slightly sifted dirt and pebbles (kitty litter).

I did a small base/dio for my Panzer II out in the desert.
First I put down a layer of household wall spakle and sculpted it with spatulas to represent sand and wind blown sand dune (very small). I let this dry.
Next I had found a very fine sandy dirt from my yard. It is very dry and very similar to kids playground sand but smaller in grain size. I actually took a handfull (approx) of this and ground it up to make sure there were no lumps.
I then spread a layer of white glue and water down on the spakle. I sprinkled the sandy dirt over it. I did Notcover it totally. I used the sand to give the representation of a full desert. I left it a bit sparse. My logic (if you wanna call it that) was that in 1/35 scale you wont see every grain of sand. Your eye needs something to break up the smooth texture of the spakle.
I then sprayed a dark coat of Tamiya Dark Yellow and Dark Brown Mix as a base coat. Then I mixed a number of shades of Tamiya Dark Yellow, Dark Brown, Buff, etc. to give a bunch different colors and sprayed various patters to add shading and highlight. I did much the same technique as is done with figure painting and thier clothing with the folds and creases etc.
Of course each has thier own desires, likes and dislikes, so play with it see what you think.
This is what I did this time and it worked. I may try to post some pictures tonight on MSN (if time allows).

Have fun in the sand box.

I agree w/ Dioman.... Sand (almost a dust type) & Kittylitter that's been run through a food processor. I've had good luck w/ it so far. (the Wal-mart brand of cat litter isn't worth using)