Grades of sand for basing and terrain

Grumdril

Member
Hi folks,

I'm looking at sand for basing and also for some terrain I'm planning to make for the next OGG gathering. The last bases I did used soft sand / building sand but that's too fine, I've also looked at sharp sand which is coarser grained but still seems a bit finer than what I had in mind. So I thought I'd ask here - what sand to people use for this sort of thing (ideally commercially available in bulk)?


Many thanks in advance,

Paul / Grumdril
 

ardyer

Member
In the US anyway, you can go to a model train shop and they usually carry a variety of grades of ballast and modelling sand. That's what I use so I can control how fine or course it is.
 

Naagruz

Member
Is beach sand an option? It has enough varying sizes to make for a more natural look on bases.
You really need to mix different grades of sand to get something that resembles real world terrain.
 
I am glad you asked this, Grumdil.

In fact my old nice coarse sand (from Citadel) was running low, so the other week I went to buy some more sand. It wasn't obvious what the grade I should get was, so rather than go to a garden centre I just ordered some more sand (from Citadel). It turns out this new Citadel sand is a lot finer than the old one (also a different colour) so I guess they've changed their supplier in the past few years... buyer beware. The fineness is making drybrushing bases harder as there's less texture there to get at.

ardyer, what store/grade do you use?
 

Chico

Member
I use citadel sand and a good work around to get a better texture from it is apply the sand to the base with superglue (Trust me)
 
When did you buy your Citadel sand, is it brown (came in a rounder tub) or yellow (came in a flatter rectangle tub)? I've found the latter just doesn't work so well.
 

ardyer

Member
Magos Explorator":32na3fof said:
ardyer, what store/grade do you use?

I use a mix of mostly fine, with a little bit of medium grade. And for good measure, I mix in a little of the small "slate" flecks from the gw basing kit. The sand I get from hobby works in Fairfax. And if you want any of the slate let me know, I've got lifetimes worth.
 

Chico

Member
Magos Explorator":3b1lmi67 said:
When did you buy your Citadel sand, is it brown (came in a rounder tub) or yellow (came in a flatter rectangle tub)? I've found the latter just doesn't work so well.


Last half a dozen times its been in the flat tub and I prefer the grain size it to be honest. Plus on a side the flat tub makes it easier to base.
 
ardyer":14j1e7gn said:
Magos Explorator":14j1e7gn said:
ardyer, what store/grade do you use?

I use a mix of mostly fine, with a little bit of medium grade. And for good measure, I mix in a little of the small "slate" flecks from the gw basing kit. The sand I get from hobby works in Fairfax. And if you want any of the slate let me know, I've got lifetimes worth.

Thanks, I may make a trip to Fairfax. I love the slate too, been using it a lot on my Necrons! :)
 
Chico":3jvf1n32 said:
Magos Explorator":3jvf1n32 said:
When did you buy your Citadel sand, is it brown (came in a rounder tub) or yellow (came in a flatter rectangle tub)? I've found the latter just doesn't work so well.

Last half a dozen times its been in the flat tub and I prefer the grain size it to be honest. Plus on a side the flat tub makes it easier to base.

I prefer the shape of the newer flat tubs for that reason, yeah. But I much prefer the coarser grade of the older stuff.
 

Just John

Moderator
If you want to mix up the size of grains in your basing add some cat litter to the mix. Great thing about it is that you can bash it around a bit to make it smaller or just use it straight from the bag. Its also dead cheap. Just make sure your at can't get anywhere near it :grin:
 

phreedh

Member
What the fuck, you nutters. It's sand. Get a large bag of bird cage sand at the pet store and you're set for ages. Bird sand is £5-6 for TEN (10) kilos. GW sand is £5 for ZERO POINT TEN (0.10) kilos. You do the maths. =)

Here's one I googled for you.
http://waterways-direct.com/index.php?m ... ts_id=2204

I use bird cage sand, sand from my garden, beach sand, sand from my lad's sand box. If you're scared of germs, just blast it in the oven for a while. I then use a cheap three-pack of sifters to get different grain size in three tubs.
 

Grumdril

Member
Thanks phreedh, that's more the sort of price level I had in mind :) I'm interested in these sifters you mention, where did you get them (I'm thinking gardening type shop)?

I was randomly looking at old White Dwarfs today and one thing that caught my eye on this topic was the "Hills and Mines" modelling article in WD132 where they mention coral sand as a coarser grain sand. So aquatic type places also look a possibility.

Otherwise I'm looking at Pets at Home (as there's one close) with 10kg of bird sand for £7.49 (overpriced by your Google but much lower delivery cost :) ) or B&Q - big bag of sharp sand for £1.81 (on the surface looks finer grain than I'd like as I mentioned before, but their soft sand has a fair degree of variation in grain size so I'm guessing the coarser sand will too, if I can sift it).
 
phreedh":gajesch4 said:
What the ****, you nutters. It's sand. Get a large bag of bird cage sand at the pet store and you're set for ages. Bird sand is £5-6 for TEN (10) kilos. GW sand is £5 for ZERO POINT TEN (0.10) kilos. You do the maths. =)

Yeah, my main reason for buying GW stuff is I assumed it would be a suitable grade. I didn't think of pet stores, actually, and I have a pet... will have to dig there.
 

Grumdril

Member
On the sifting front, thinking about this more there's a sand sieve in the kid's sand pit outside (approx 2mm mesh by the look of it), and a tea strainer like this (75p!) - looks to have about a 0.5mm mesh.

So I'm thinking of going with the builders sharp sand / building sand options - the sand sieve can get out the lumps and anything which goes through the tea strainer can go in the kid's sand pit (with perhaps some of it kept back to smooth out the base texture slightly).
 

Asslessman

Member
I have to say that paying for sand is something I've never considered. :shock:

I work as a geotechnical engineer ( I study soils and their bearing capacity for any type of construction you'd want to build to put it simply) and we have a lab at work. Which means we're sent sand, clay any any kind of soil you can think of. And we also have everything you need to select exactly the size of each grains (photo not form work) :

0014.JPG
20%20IMG_3231%20%20granulometrie.JPG


So everytime I need, I just go get some random sand and sieve it to select the grain sizes I want (I can even use the proper formulas to create the perfect sand or to create form any random soil containing sand). This also means I make a few pounds of each batch so I don't have to worry about shortage.
However, unsurprisingly, we sometimes receive samples from boreholes with sand that is already perfectly fitted for basing (photo still not from work) :
DSC00084.jpg


Sometimes real life does come in handy...
 

phreedh

Member
Asslessman":3r7ngm5a said:
Sometimes real life does come in handy...
We dug a well in our garden and at four metres of depth the sand we dug up was finer than beach sand. Needless to say, I have a tub of that very fine sand. Perfect for adding texture to paint!

And regarding sifters, I use kitchen strainers. Such as these, from IKEA:
http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/produ ... K+Strainer

However, I got a cheap set of three sizes (and grades).
 

Jonas

Member
I take a plastic tub and walk around town looking at building sites and playing grounds, then filling the tub when I find something I like :lol:

Free and haven't failed me so far.

Besides that I use chincchilla sand when I need really fine sand for Epic bases, asfalt or texture on buildings and such.
 
I'm a scavenger too.

The white sand they pack around telegraph poles, and also river or propagation sand ($5 AUS for 5 or 10 kg) does me just fine...
 
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