Chinchilla dust or sand?

[billtee]

I am about to start modelling a small river on my O gauge layout, and I want to make my riverbanks similar to real riverbanks, with shallow sandy bits, steeper clay banks, tree roots projecting from the riverbanks, etc. 
I have read many OO gauge model railway magazines where they talk of ‘chinchilla dust’, but never having seen or used this stuff, I am not sure it would be the right stuff to use on an O gauge layout.

I should say that I have looked at several videos on YouTube showing rivers being created, but they are all ‘rough water’ (fast flowing) models, but my river will be a slow-flowing, calm river (hopefully with no leaks when I pour the ‘water’ resin!). The shallow sandy inlets will be where the river banks have been washed away to create small ‘beaches’ of washed gravels and sands which, with luck, can show the depth of the water as the ‘beach’ goes out into the deeper areas of the river. (I hope people can understand what I am trying to achieve! I have yet to mould plaster of paris to make the river banks, so I will be making the shallow areas quite smooth!)

Can anyone give me some advice as to what I should purchase, please? Chinchilla DUST or SAND?

Bill

 

[skipepsi]

Go to a pet shop and ask for a small bag of chinchilla dust it should be very cheap. Do a small test first,  slowly pouring the resin, too fast and the dust may be carried downstream... 

Edited January 16, 2020 by skipepsi

[55020]

Dust or sand?  Well, having kept chinchillas in the past I don't think there's any difference with what you get, no matter what they call it.  As skipepsi says, just nip down to your local petstore and buy some, then give it a go.  It's cheap.

 

Probably the only consideration to take into account is that it is very uniform in size, so to get a realistic look you'd have to mix it with something else from time to time to represent pebbles, etc.

[spikey]

A kilo of "Tiny Friends Farm Bathing Sand" from the local pet shop cost me £3.20, just about filled a container 20cm high and 10cm diameter wide, and cost me £3.30.  Marvellous stuff

Edited January 16, 2020 by spikey
the inevitable typo

[Simond]

What is chinchilla dust?  
 

Do you have to grind the chinchillas up really small   
 

seriously, is it some kind of mineral, or plant based?

 

ta

Simon

[Simond]

With regard to skipepsi’s post, I think whatever it is, it needs to be stuck to the base before pouring resin, or it will be lifted by the resin.  I’ve never done a river bank, but my approach would be -

 

gross texture, plaster, paper mache, etc, sculpt features, etc.

finer texture if needed - Artex type plaster

base colours - probably acrylics - match pots from the DIY sheds

fine texture - sand, grit, dust, whatever

details, weeds, shopping trolley, tree branches

pour resin in layers, adding weeds and fish before next layer, keep dust free with some kind of cover whilst it sets.

 

hth

Simon

[Hal Nail]

18 minutes ago, Simond said:

fish

You what?!

 

Ian in London.

[Phil Parker]

1 hour ago, Simond said:

What is chinchilla dust?  
 

Do you have to grind the chinchillas up really small   
 

seriously, is it some kind of mineral, or plant based?

 

ta

Simon

 

Google is your friend.

 

Find an all-natural, high-quality dusting powder made for chinchillas. This can be found at a local pet retailer. It is called Chinchilla Dust, which looks like fine gray sand.

An alternative to Chinchilla Dust is the superior option, Chinchilla Bath Sand. This is made from 100% natural volcanic mountain pumice. It’s virtually dust free and easy to use.

 

Source.

[ColinK]

I can’t help with the dust/sand question, but if you layer the water you can put things in it.  The ‘water’ is Deluxe Materials Solid Water.  When a layer is starting to set you can put things in it too, penguins for me, but you could put twigs/logs in the last layer. Solid Water does not heat up while curing (important as heat would have melted the plastic animals) and it does set solid - some waters do not.

 

[billtee]

Thank you, everyone! I did have to laugh at ‘ground up chinchillas’! I agree with the order of river construction - that is what I have planned, and will be using Deluxe Materials Solid Water resin. All the videos I have looked at recommend this stuff, so that’s my choice, too.

I was very impressed with one modeller’s tree roots he embedded in his river bank. He used real plant roots (well, weeds I think!), just drying them gently before slicing off the green bits. They looked very convincing indeed, though WHAT weeds or small plants he used exactly was not specified. It looks like I am going to have to do some gardening! (Groan!)

All the very best for 2020 to everyone, and thank you for your contributions. It looks like a visit to our nearest pet shop is in order.

Bill

[Simond]

4 hours ago, Hal Nail said:

You what?!

 

Ian in London.

 

Well, what else would the penguins eat?

 

[Simond]

11 hours ago, Phil Parker said:

 

Google is your friend.

 

Find an all-natural, high-quality dusting powder made for chinchillas. This can be found at a local pet retailer. It is called Chinchilla Dust, which looks like fine gray sand.

An alternative to Chinchilla Dust is the superior option, Chinchilla Bath Sand. This is made from 100% natural volcanic mountain pumice. It’s virtually dust free and easy to use.

 

Source.

indeed it is.  It’s amazing what things are not dreamt of in my philosophy, Horatio...

 

 

I presume they all die at an early age of silicosis, or something similar.  Quite weird.  It looks quite breathless at one point.  

 

cheers

Simon

Edited January 16, 2020 by Simond

[Sprintex]

1 hour ago, Simond said:

 

 

I presume they all die at an early age of silicosis, or something similar.  Quite weird.  It looks quite breathless at one point.  

 

cheers

Simon

 

Quite the opposite actually, they can live up to 20 years, a long time for a small rodent. Rabbits generally last about 8 years, Syrian hamsters 3 years, mice 2 years if you're lucky. And wouldn't you be a little out of breath with all that rolling around?

 

They have over quarter of a million hairs per square inch, which is why they're so soft, and also stops them getting any fleas or mites - they can't get close enough to the skin to feed! They bathe in sand to clean their fur of grease and dirt, they can't bathe in water as they would probably never dry out 

 

I have two, Austin and Morris. They're great pets as unlike most rodents they don't bite unless you REALLY antagonise them, and even then only a warning 'nip' to let you know they could pierce your skin if they wanted to 

 

Paul

Edited January 16, 2020 by Sprintex

[Philou]

Looks like the chums our cat brings home from time to time - called 'bandits' around here due a black mask around the eyes. Dormice actually, but I wouldn't try to pick one of those up in my bare hands - no siree :/ .

 

Cheers,

 

Philip

[billtee]

Thank you, everyone! I went to my nearest pet shop and bought a huge container of chinchilla sand for less than £4. It is a grey colour, so will need to have a few dabs of yellow/brown paint here and there when the PVA glue has dried on my river banks, but it looks quite good.

Bill

[MarshLane]

On 20/01/2020 at 17:58, billtee said:

Thank you, everyone! I went to my nearest pet shop and bought a huge container of chinchilla sand for less than £4. It is a grey colour, so will need to have a few dabs of yellow/brown paint here and there when the PVA glue has dried on my river banks, but it looks quite good.

Bill

 

Dont forget to let us see the end result Bill - not to mention progress as your getting on.  

 

When I first read that I wasn't quite concentrating, and thought you'd said you'd been to your nearest pet shop and bought a huge chinchilla!  For a split second, until I re-read it I thought you'd abandoned model railways and the river! 

Rich

[cravensdmufan]

On 20/01/2020 at 17:58, billtee said:

Thank you, everyone! I went to my nearest pet shop and bought a huge container of chinchilla sand for less than £4. It is a grey colour, so will need to have a few dabs of yellow/brown paint here and there when the PVA glue has dried on my river banks, but it looks quite good.

Bill

Hi, I'm thinking of using the fine chinchilla sand instead of ballast for my 00 gauge depot. Would you be very kind and post a photo of your results please?  Many thanks.  Vivian.

[woodyfox]

I use it as o gauge ballast. 

 

It is cheap and plentiful. 

 

Cheers 

[cravensdmufan]

5 minutes ago, woodyfox said:

I use it as o gauge ballast. 

 

It is cheap and plentiful. 

 

Cheers 

Woody, that looks excellent. I really like the weathering on the sleepers and chairs. Thanks for posting.

[D6775]

8 minutes ago, woodyfox said:

I use it as o gauge ballast. 

 

It is cheap and plentiful. 

 

Cheers 

Thats Chinchilla Sand? Looks really good. I may have to get hold of some. 

[woodyfox]

12 hours ago, D6775 said:

Thats Chinchilla Sand? Looks really good. I may have to get hold of some. 

Yes. I get mine from Pets At Home. I treat it like ballast designed for model railway use. The natural colour is a light grey to pinkish hue. 

Cheers 

[rob D2]

that looks good.

wonder if it would be any good for a beach look in OO 

 

[billtee]

To CravensDMUfan,

Here’s a photo of my river, and the riverbank on the right (not a very good photo, I’m sorry!).

Looking at my river, you can hardly see the chinchilla dust/sand, but it IS there, just hidden by the many water reeds and bullrushes which I ‘planted’. The ducks caused a lot of problems when they began to ‘sink’ into the resin river surface, but I finished up tapping some Peco track pins into the river until the top of the track pins were flush with the resin surface. Then I re-glued the ducks to the track pins! That stopped them sinking. I was quite surprised at just how long the Deluxe Materials resin took to dry rock hard - it was nearly a month, and this in my mildly warm railway loft.

All the best,

Bill