I wanted to see what you all thought of my idea to mimic the sand of Iwo Jima. I have seen jars of it that people who have visited the island brought back and the one thing they tell me and what I've noticed is how shiny it is.

My idea is to use some Woodland Scenics fine black ballast and coat it with a bit of Tamiya NATO black to give a bit of a gray shade. Then to get the shiny effect spray the whole of it with Future.

Any suggestions?

Hello Hellbent

Sounds like a good idea! The volcanic ash and debris on the island is fairly shiny. The island itself, being essentially a volcanic island actually had a pale sand colour to it, beneath all that black ash. Constant shelling during the assault would have cratered the island significantly, so I can assume from photos that a good bet would be the pale sand and coral base interspersed with heaps and piles of the black ash.

Sounds like an interesting project!! Good luck.

Regards
Garth

A note about Iwo JIma, I am sure you are aware of the new movie "Flags of Our Fathers", well, there is also a book that the movie is based on. I read the book about a year ago. I would highly reccomend it if you like reading. From what I read, the movie cant possibly cover everything in the book as it is a fairly long book. However, the book has a few very good pictures in it, and will vividly describe Iwo to you. While I found the book enjoyable, I should warn you its kind of graphic, and some parts are upsetting to say the least. JUst thought I would pass that along.

Have you considered aquarium sand?

Art

Hi Gary

Is this book also called ' Flags of the Fathers'? I might like to read that.

Thanks

Garth

PS: Hellbent, Aquarium sand may be a good bet.

Yes, I have seen the movie "Flags of our Fathers" and that is what really got me thinking about doing a dio related to that.

I'm not very familiar with aquarium sand. Is it that gravel stuff you always see in fish tanks or is it finer? ( I suppose it would be in order to work for a 1:35th dio huh?)

Hellbent,

If you want some fine grain black sand let me know. I have tons of laying on the floor at work. We have 200 tons of it in silos. We make our molds out of it here at the foundry.
Shoot me a pm if interested and I will UPS you a couple of tons. (We give away our spent sand to the street department, they use it for back fill).

Seriously, if you want a couple pounds let me know.

Shaun

The book I read was called "Flags of our Fathers" just like the movie. It was written by James Bradley and Ron Powers. Ironically, the movie "flyboys" that just came out was written by ron powers as well.

Fairly current pic of the beach at Iwo-

The grains of sand may be shiny in close-up, but I think spraying the dio with Future would make it all look like wet asphalt rather than volcanic sand. Look at the color photo posted above and you don't see any reflectivity.

That's quite interesting, since Bradley's first book was also titled Flyboys but was a history of Naval Aviation in the Pacific and featured an account of George W. Bush's crash and rescue. Wonder what their relationship is now?
Side note, Flags of Our Fathers comes out on video this Tuesday (6 February).