behind the scenes 3 by
Gary Menten, on Flickr
I've been wanting to try using a children's product called "Kinetic Sand" for a while, having first seen its use by another 1/6 contributor on Flickr who used it for beach sand. It's real sand mixed with some gunk or other that makes it stick together, malleable, and also keep its shape once formed. Finally, I ordered a 3lb bag on Amazon Friday, which was delivered the following day. So everything in this picture an essay reflects my first efforts at using it. Doubtless, I will learn more about it as I use it more.
behind the scenes by
Gary Menten, on Flickr
As the above photo shows, you don't get much sand out of a 3lb bag. Sand is heavy. So if you are going to want to cover large areas, get a few bags.
Here are the advantages of using this over real sand.
It's like dough. It's malleable, it sticks together. It never dries out, an there is no mess cleaning it up. It's meant for children to play with, after all.
On the down side, posing figures on it and expecting them to stay upright long enough to get a photo is much harder than you might thing. It happeneed to me at least a dozen times that I'd posed the figure or figure, tested it for stability, thought things were good, and the damned figure fell over just as I was reaching for my camera. Also...it seems to love sticking to those silicone seamless bodies, and takes more effort to brush off than you would think to get it off. My advice is to have a stiff but soft brush like an old toothbrush handy, as well as a bowl of powder and a makeup brush to get rid of those stubborn particles that won't move. Look for some way to support your figures if you can.
Needless to say, but I'll say it anyway, cameras do not like sand very much. Keep your camera well away from it. I didn't have any bad experiences here because I follow this rule wherever I go with a camera that there is a lot of sand.
Also, everywhere you pose your figures in it standing, you will leave footprints, as you have to push the feet into the sand somewhat to have any expectation of them remaining upright. The sand did not stick to the feet of the seamless figures, meaning i should imagine, that it will not stick to harder plastic jointed bodies, for those of you who might care about this. I have not tried this out at with a full body, but it seems a logical conclusion.
As the photo shows however, you do not need to always pose figures directly in the sand. Depending on camera angles and how much of the figure you are actually showing, you can simply use it as filler to disguise your table top while keeping your figures on a more level and harder surface.
behind The scenes 2 by
Gary Menten, on Flickr
In the above photo, I posed the foreground figure on the wooden table top while the background figure which is actually on the sand, is leaning slightly backwards against the door of the grass shack. There's lots of sand in the middle, creating the illusion of a beach.
behind the scenes 4 by
Gary Menten, on Flickr
In this final photo, both figures are standing on the hard surface of the table itself, just in front of where the kinetic sand ends. There is plenty of sand visible again in the middle of the picture, but no-one can tell that the figures are not on it. I found it useful also in that it can be worked right up to the edges of my little vegetation islands and the grass hut false front, eliminating any visible gaps between these and the table top or whatever covers the table top.
So in conclusion, this is an interesting product for dio building. It never dries out, can be used over and over again, shaped into many forms though it does take practice and effort to pose any kind of upright figure on it, and if you are using seamless figures, you will need to be able to clean the exposed fleshy parts when they come into contact with the stuff. For those wanting to build alien planets, it also comes in purple and green, if that means anything to you. I got mine on Amazon.
