People keep saying to use real dirt to give scenery texture. But when viewing a layout our eyes are about a scale 200'-300' away. If you go outside and look at natural dirt at that distance you shouldn't see ANY texture. If you do see any texture then there are a lot of pebbles & rocks mixed in w/ the dirt.
Andy I wouldn't even think about leaving baseball diamond dirt ontop of the wet paint as is, it's put on just because the paint is wet, that is unless im making my dirt roads which just happens to be the way i do them.When I do my scenery I do many many layers.
Andy if you want really fine real dirt use clay clods dried and broken up. It is fine like powder. Otherwise you can use plain old sheet rock joint compound painted with acrylic paint to also get a really fine texture.
If there are any dirt areas on my layout will just paint it, i.e. there will be no need to mix or prep anything. My layout will be all industrial switching so any "scenery" will mostly be tracks, streets, structures, etc.
The trick is take the finest dirt and put it in a container with a panty hose for a lid.If you want to see if your scenery dirt is out of scale, put a scale figure's foot down on it. Have seen many close up pix on MR forums showing real dirt for scenery. It looks like the figures & vehicles are on a field of stones!
Don't need to much want to thru that much work on my layout!The trick is take the finest dirt and put it in a container with a panty hose for a lid.