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.
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.
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.
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
BAMComix and TNshooter like this post
FIELD STATION 42 Admin
Posts : 4104 Join date : 2018-03-22 Location : South Central Utah, USA
Subject: Re: Behind The Scenes: Tahiti & Working with Kinetic Sand Sun Mar 27, 2022 6:19 pm
Fantastic pics, and a great tutorial on using kinetic sand, with some important pointers about sand vs camera and sand vs seamless figure bodies.
The Tahiti Hut looks great! I'm working on constructing the exact same thing, only mine looks like utter rubbish, even though I'm using the exact same approach - bamboo beach mat glued on to a foamcore board. I guess I need a tutorial on building a beach hut in addition to working with kinetic sand.
The photographer leaning against the door is actually pretty accurate. In addition to steadying the figure without being obvious, that is a technique I use, or used to use when I shot more photos outdoors with a full-size camera, to steady myself and the camera in the absence of a tripod.
_________________ ... DAVE
Kimono Troop Command French Resistance
Posts : 2191 Join date : 2020-07-25
Subject: Re: Behind The Scenes: Tahiti & Working with Kinetic Sand Sun Mar 27, 2022 6:31 pm
The key is to experiment and use common sense. The sand maybe "kinetic sand" but it's still sand.
Chip Canadian Mounted Police
Posts : 1768 Join date : 2014-02-26
Subject: Re: Behind The Scenes: Tahiti & Working with Kinetic Sand Mon Mar 28, 2022 11:37 am
Brilliant tips and tutorial , never heard of that Sand before so have booked marked some on Amazon , think I can definitely find a use for it . Thanks Gary .
_________________ " There will be no Mercy ." Chip Hazard .
Kimono Troop Command French Resistance
Posts : 2191 Join date : 2020-07-25
Subject: Re: Behind The Scenes: Tahiti & Working with Kinetic Sand Mon Mar 28, 2022 4:10 pm
Chip wrote:
Brilliant tips and tutorial , never heard of that Sand before so have booked marked some on Amazon , think I can definitely find a use for it . Thanks Gary .
I would estimate that do a decent scene with a couple of figure, you need two to three times as much as I am using in that photo. Note that I had only ordered a single 3lb bag because I wanted to experiment with the stuff and learn it's properties before spending a lot of money on something I might not use all that much. This being said, I will probably order more as I plan to develop a Pacific Island story line as I expand my anime figure collection.
FIELD STATION 42 Admin
Posts : 4104 Join date : 2018-03-22 Location : South Central Utah, USA
Subject: Re: Behind The Scenes: Tahiti & Working with Kinetic Sand Mon Mar 28, 2022 4:57 pm
I wonder if it would be possible to mix kinetic sand with regular sand and still get the "sticky" effect?
_________________ ... DAVE
Kimono Troop Command French Resistance
Posts : 2191 Join date : 2020-07-25
Subject: Re: Behind The Scenes: Tahiti & Working with Kinetic Sand Mon Mar 28, 2022 5:15 pm
Kinetic sand is apparently not difficult to make yourself.
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