Coyote Wells, CA 9/86

On The Atlas Forum, there was an inquiry on how this sand look was achieved.  It is real desert sand from Yuma, AZ. I painted the area with the craft paint, sifted the sand on...Let it dry, take some sand paper and work it a bit...Vacuum the area, then I take a bowl of water and a soppy brush with the craft paint and blob it on. The paint follows the contours of the sand. When it dries it looks like N scale sand. It's almost like this:

http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/node/2897

But I would call it "wet texturing" - It works because you can't really use dirt or sand in N scale, it's too large, the granules. The paint is the 99 cent stuff from Wal-Mart: Folk Art #420 Linen. It looks like sand.