Diorama FX Landscape Texture Alkaline White 0,5-1mm

Fine lime grit for dusty tracks

Alkaline White in the finest grade offered represents dried-out light soil of the kind known from limestone plateaus, from quarry spoil heaps or from the edge of a field track after a long drought. The grain of 0.5 to 1 mm is small enough not to look like stone at the usual modeling sizes but like a compacted surface. Converted to 1:35 it corresponds to coarse sand; at smaller scales it merges into a continuous area without recognizable particles.

Application

First coat the area with thinned PVA glue and scatter the material through a sieve or with your fingers so that it lies loose; pressing it down takes the texture away. Tap the excess off once dry. The second way is to mix the grit straight with glue into a thin slurry and spread it with a spatula, which suits ruts worn into a roadway. Strengthen the fixed layer by dripping a very thin glue with a drop of detergent into it, so that it runs through the whole depth.

Adjusting the color

A light grain is a rewarding base for toning. A few glazes of thinned brown or ocher will give the area depth and break up its uniformity; a dry brush, by contrast, will pull the tips of the grains back to white. A filter laid over a dried glaze will unify the color of the base with the color of the undercarriage standing on the track.

Where a fine grain helps most

The finest grade also suits places coarser material cannot reach: into the gaps between paving, under the eaves line of a wall, into the hollow of a footprint and as a final layer that fills the gaps left by a coarser scatter. A few pinches scattered onto the undercarriage of a standing vehicle turn clean equipment into a machine that has a journey behind it.