I've done a little more experimenting today. I'm fairly happy with the results given that I'm working in a scale 64x smaller than real life. I don't think I'll ever be able to capture the look of sand dunes perfectly in this scale, but I'm happy enough with what I've got thus far.
But before I show you that, I thought it might be helpful to do a side by side comparison of some of the potential materials. The photo below should be pretty self explanatory, but as you can see, the grain size increases from left to right. The play sand has the added advantage that you can compress it to flatten the texture, although not enough to represent the pathways IMO.
Once painted, it is exactly what I had hoped for, a smooth surface but with slight variations in texture! The only challenge now was to blend it into the existing dunes...
...no problem, I'll just lay a thin strip of PVA...
Once that was starting to dry nicely, I brushed off any loose bits and repainted it to match the existing dunes. Now it's starting to look how I envisaged:
In between waiting for various paints to dry, I put on a couple more coats of PVA on the sea area. Once the light bounces off it at the right angle, it really starts to look like water!
And so I think that is about as good as I can get the sand dunes to look in this scale! I'm not sure it stands up as well in the cruel close up shots above, but from a foot away it looks pretty alright I think?
But before I show you that, I thought it might be helpful to do a side by side comparison of some of the potential materials. The photo below should be pretty self explanatory, but as you can see, the grain size increases from left to right. The play sand has the added advantage that you can compress it to flatten the texture, although not enough to represent the pathways IMO.
And so I was spurred on by the suggestion of brick dust and remembered I have a half used box of "Smooth-It" (which is to all intents and purposes glorified filler - not the "road system" it is sold as!) which in its raw state is essentially a consistency similar to flour. I therefore thought that I should lay it over some PVA where the pathway is to be.
Once painted, it is exactly what I had hoped for, a smooth surface but with slight variations in texture! The only challenge now was to blend it into the existing dunes...
...no problem, I'll just lay a thin strip of PVA...
And press in some more play sand! Note also at this point that I ballasted the short length of track with the Woodlands Scenics fine buff ballast.
Once that was starting to dry nicely, I brushed off any loose bits and repainted it to match the existing dunes. Now it's starting to look how I envisaged:
In between waiting for various paints to dry, I put on a couple more coats of PVA on the sea area. Once the light bounces off it at the right angle, it really starts to look like water!
And so I think that is about as good as I can get the sand dunes to look in this scale! I'm not sure it stands up as well in the cruel close up shots above, but from a foot away it looks pretty alright I think?
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