Suggestions Wanted on Modeling a Pile of Dirt or Chemicals

@G3750 posted:

I'm probably over-thinking this, but I can't seem to come with a simple way to model a pile of dirt or chemicals that would be moved by wheelbarrow or by a shovel.

Find something granular that approximates what you want to represent (fake coal, aquarium gravel, real dirt...) and use it to make a pile. When it is sculpted the way you like, dribble it with watered-down white glue. Let it dry. You will end up with a (possibly hollow) stable pile that you can position where it is needed.

This coal pile was made this way:

Pyramid of pink foam, spray paint it so it gets eaten a bit for an irregular surface, glue something granular to it.

Billy Ray likes real dirt to dig his holes.  Nothing like real dirt.  Place it down, put wet water on it then diluted white glue.

I just love these Billy Ray radio commercials

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I've had good luck using leftover/broken plaster rock castings as the base for dirt and gravel piles. I paint the plaster, sprinkle on the appropriate ground cover, let dry, and then go back with wet water, glue, and more ground cover.

@Boilermaker1 posted:

Pyramid of pink foam, spray paint it so it gets eaten a bit for an irregular surface, glue something granular to it.

I use actual dirt  where it is dirt.  Ground grits , around  the pits where hoppers and grain boxcars empty and colored grout  for dirt roads,  paths , ect.

Use real dirt over a pile of plaster. Like a skim coat of dirt.  

Yep -- as others have said, it's sort of dealer's choice as to material to use, and if the material is cheap enough, the wet water/water-IPA mix and watered glue to secure a pile of it works well, or if the material is expensive or in short supply, the surface coat methods work well. I've even used the same basic methods to add realism to some molded plastic piles. Here's a few examples (this was an early photo of the scene-- it was still under, err, construction! ):

The gray 'gravel pile' on the lower left is sifted rock dust, and the lighter color 'rock pile' above it is some of the larger stone sifted from the same crusher run, while the reddish 'stone pile' to its right is a plastic molding that came with the WS construction figure set, topped with some WS fine ballast (which I also used around the edges of the 'stone block pavers' -- actually, a section of reddish air dry clay patterned with a squared-off piece of copper tubing, left over from another project). All of the loose materials were first wetted with a spray of water/IPA, then saturated with watered white glue, using the same technique as when ballasting, while the coating on the plastic molding was secured with a brush coat of white glue on the molding, and then sprinkling the ballast over it. I later added a 'sand pile' made of some fine sawdust (the yellowish pile on the right below):

FWIW:  Here's another example; poured some sandbox sand over a few pebbles picked from the yard.  I didn't glue this material down, as I will want to change the scene at some point.   This is a shelf display, not part of a layout.  Engines changed out as the mood strikes.

How about creating a file and having it done on a 3D printer???.....

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Time for that first cup o' joe!

@G3750 posted:

I'm probably over-thinking this, but I can't seem to come with a simple way to model a pile of dirt or chemicals that would be moved by wheelbarrow or by a shovel.

Use dirt, gravel, stones to model dirt, gravel, stones.  Not sure what chemicals might be moved by wheelbarrow or by a shovel, having never done that....but something granular and perhaps tinted a bit would work?

I used a piece of a foam sphere ,  covered with scale coal. I had to move mine in one photo to show pile better . JohnA

Every granular material has what is called an "angle of repose", which is the slope that the material will naturally assume if it is piled up freely. It is always the same for a given material under given conditions, and (I believe) it is scale-independent. The angle of repose determines the natural shape of a pile.

The big advantage of starting with a real pile of real material is that you will get the correct angle of repose automatically, whereas all the "start with a carved piece" solutions require sculpting skill to get it to look right, which I don't always have. The dribbled glue captures the shape that physics provides, which is always "correct".

I bought an old food chopper at a garage sale, and I use it to grind up "real" materials, ie, dirt, small rock to what I feel is O scale size. I use the diluted white glue with a drop of dishsoap and wet water sometimes. Usually I only use the diluted white glue dishsoap mix. Let it pile naturally as someone else mentioned. I can do scale gravel this way, dirt, sand, whatever. 

Thank you for all the terrific suggestions.  I ended up using some Game Works ground cover (of various types) over foam with Scenic Glue.  That was followed up with the Scenic Express version of a wet-water / white glue mix on top.

I don't think it turned out too badly, especially from the 1' distance.

George

@G3750 posted:

Thank you for all the terrific suggestions.  I ended up using some Game Works ground cover (of various types) over foam with Scenic Glue.  That was followed up with the Scenic Express version of a wet-water / white glue mix on top.

I don't think it turned out too badly, especially from the 1' distance.

George

Looks great. OSHA might have an issue with it. ; )

Ron

@Ron045 posted:

Looks great. OSHA might have an issue with it. ; )

Ron

Thank you!  OSHA isn't even a glint in anyone's eye in 1952. 

George