28th/mar/2026. How to get mixed up in Bull dust.

Well, the street has been laid through the Village of Fern Ridge.

Now I need to work on the roads out of each end of the village. They need to be dirt roads, and as it's got to look real, I have decided to use real dirt, and I always loved to play in dirt and water when I was young, about 73 years ago. They were the days. Oh, wake up, Jeff, and get back to this job.

Now I remember, somewhere in my shed, there is an ice cream container of Red/brown Bulldust dirt from outback that my mate Wolf gave me, which he said would be good for the roads. I'll be back in a min. Found it and yes it's more yellow/brown than red so it will be great.

Well, the first job is to draw in the road with a pencil and ruler, then lay down painters' tape, keeping the tape to the outside of the road so that the wood glue can be painted on with a brush. 

While the glue is still sticky, and using a fine sieve, I sprinkled on the Bulldust dirt and levelled it with a soft 6cm paint brush, as we only needed a fine covering of dirt on the road, while the dirt was still a little bit wet I used a small amount of Mod Podge and made some wet ruts on the corners of the roads, nothing beats the actual texture and color of the earth to make a layout feel "grounded."The contrast between the dark emery paper "bitumen" in the centre of the village and the dusty red tracks leading out will look sharp. It really tells a story of where the "civilisation" ends and the bush begins. 

A quick tip for the transition: When you’re blending the emery paper into the bull dust, try tapering the edges of the paper or dusting some of that red earth over the ends of the "pavement." It makes it look like the local traffic has been dragging the dust back into town on their tyres, and so all was finished. Another job done.

Whisper to you next Saturday. Bye Cobber.