any ideas how i can accomplish this task? i appreciate any help thans 
I once created a dirt road cutting through a hill side using old peices of styro foam [the packing material from various DVD and TV boxes], news paper wads, and plaster cloth. The shape of the this was created with the newspaper wads and the styro foam acted as a the flat portion which would become the road. The plaster cloth was cut laid out on top of this foundation and spayed with water [some choose to dip the plaster cloth in the water and then lay it out which maybe better but I havenât tried it yet].
Now this is that part you were really asking about:
After the plaster dried i painted it with some cheap matt brown laytex paint [any earth tone will do as long as itâs a matt finish]. After it dried i diluted some elmers school glue with water and painted it on the area where the âdirtâ on the road would be. Now here are where the choices come in depending on scale. If you are woking with 1/35 scale you would sprinkle finer âdirtâ than if you were modeling in 1/25 scale. My cars were in i/25 so i used Wood Land Scenics Tallus [rubble/fine rocks] which were a light tan color. If you get the lighter color rocks like grey they can be tinted to the color you want by sprinkleing them on the glue ,allowing to dry and putting either clothing die [dilute if necessary] or diluted acrylic paint in a spray bottle and spraying the rocks with it. This same method is also used to dye rocks made from plaster.
So to make a long story short paint an earth tone base, coat it with Elmers [or diluted Elmers], and simply sprinkle on the dirt/rocks.
Latex paint on the base is great because itâs cheap, covers well, and covers quickly. Also some manuals recommend adding your turf for the grassy areas before the latex dries and you can skip the âpainting with Elmers stepâ. Anyway no matter which method you use after the the rocks have dried in place shake off the excess and then place some diluted Elmers in a spray bottle and spay it all over the the turf and the dirt road. Donât worry it will dry clear. Be aware that if you are using sand too much glue will make the sand take on a âmuddy lookingâ texture.
I appologize for being long winded but i hope this helps. It took a lot of reading and trial and error to get this far and i wish i had someone to tell me when i started out. {I hadnât found this site yet!]LOL [;)]
GOOD LUCK!
i use dirt and sift 3 different stages, 1 coarse ( pebles and small rocks ) 2 fine ( sifted thrugh a mesh netting) 3 (optional) super fine speaker box covering (makes a dust type product be sure to ware a mask)
Just regular dirt from the yard? Any special prep like drying?[i have only built two soil/greenery type dioramas.]
yeah, i appreciate the advice people. is the dirt ârealâ dirt? please dont feel bad about being long windedâŚit nice to see some peple go into detail. most responses are always sooo vague. so please be long winded!! thanks for the advice guys!
if you have access to a beach, the coastal sand is spectacular for dessert diosâŚ
Kitty litter works great !!
Those cheap âeverything is a dollarâ type stores often have a crafts and home decor type section. This is where I get my cheap sand in a little bag for a dollar. Tho Iâll admit mote of the time they had colored sand because the true color sand would sell out faster.lol
So how do you guys use the real dirt?
cook it to kill any nematodes, mold spores or other nasties⌠Then sift and apply.
I like to use plaster mixed with celuclay and the dirt/sand/detrious to make the road surface and go from there. Then you can add the kitty litter and put in the contours before it dries.
Mike
How do you "cook itâ?lol
Pop it in the owen for a while or put it in the microwave
spread it out on a cookie sheet or tin foil and pop it in the regular oven.
Mike
I think we should retitle this thread âThings to do While the Missus is Outâ!LOL
If my wife or even my mother for that matter ever caught me stickin dirt in their cooking devices Iâd find myself snug as a bug in a rug six feet under it [nemotodes, horny toads and all]!LOL
MGM,
You donât think I let my wife catch me using her oven for cooking my dirt do you? Same for cooking sculpey or Fimo⌠those are projects for when sheâs gone for a while.
Then it goes into a container that I keep labeled. Sand, fine sand, coarse sand, light dirt, dark dirt, clay, kitty litter, etc. I do it in batches and sheâs none the wiser. Then I just go pick the ground material I need for the base and setting. I have these plastic containers that the crystal light drink mix packages come in. They are perfect for this application. I can see in a glance what I have and how much. And its always on hand.
Clear tennis ball cans, cool whip containers, glad plastic sandwich containers all work pretty well similarly.
Mike
Yeah, remeber the first time i âcookedâ some Super Sculpy. thought iâd never get the smell out of the kitchen. That was the first and last time I tried that one!LOL
i tried a while back to use ârealâ sand from the âyardâ. used elmers white glue on itâŚall i got was a grayish blob that when dryâŚlooked like a grayish blob instead of sand. now i heard someone say something about using glue and baking sodaâŚmaybe iâll give that i shot. i appreciate all your advice guysâŚthat just seems way easier rather than âcookingâ real dirt. 
but thanks non the less.
The problem was you used too much Elmers. First paint the base [or the area wherever you are going to put the sand] a light tan color. When that dries you can do these things;
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Paint on a thin coat of Elmers and then spinkle it over the sand, allowing full coverage, and alow to dry.
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Shake off/blow off off the excess sand after it has dried.
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Spray with witha diluted solution of Elmerâs in a spray bottle in order to âseal itâ. This eliminates the âmuddyâ look.[;)]
I have âbeen there done thatâ. Beleive me this WILL solve the problem. it worked for me![:D]
I think Iâm coming close to doing almost every thing ever written or thought of about scenery (Iâm quite hungry for it being a model railroader) I have a few areas on the layout, and then some in the diorama that I managed to look very real, without much mess. Easiest way to lay down a dirt road?
3M is the answer! So, you give whatever you need to coat with a good deep spray of super powerful spray adhesive. Then you coat that sucker with plenty of dirt or sand. I went out and collected some from under my deck. Its not that deep wet dirt thats under grass or anythingâŚnice and dry. I swear its so easy. Just knock the road on its side(or âlightlyâ vacuum), and waaa LAHâŚdirt road. The adhesive bonds it very solid. It even âkeepsâ a lot of the larger particles of dirtâŚso you can kinda pick and choose, via some tweezers, where you want your ârocksâ to be. You have to wait a while for it to dry, and you could put multiple coats over as many times as you want to. In fact, I find I donât need to put any base coat down of anything, given that I want the base to be just the dirt color Iâm using. Big time EZ! Try it on some scrapâŚsee if it works for you
-jon
Yeah, it just depends on what color the base is from the start. Itâs just that in tha case of sand it is so light in color that the best way to avoid âthe mud effectâ with Elmers is to use a light base coat. This method looks great and only requirs a thin layer of sand for the desired effect.
Hi 60,
I did the same thing as duckman in the past. I use good old pva glue spread evenly over surface to stick it down. For my latest dio (# 2), I have got my hands on some fine grade grout powder. Iâm gonna try this for bulldust using pva glue as above. I reakon flour might work, I used this sprinkled over wet paint to create mud on road wheels in my first dio, it didnât look so good for mud though.
In that same dio though, I did have a dirt track going through a farm field. Using mulliput I spread it in a wide strip a couple milimeters thick, sprinkled very fine sand over it and using a tyre from my bitsa box pinched at the hub between my fingers rolled it in two parallel lines an axle width apart while pressing down. This looked good, the track looked like well compressed dirt with looser dirt around it.
Have fun mate, Wacky.