The controlled preparation of a soil sample in a drum centrifuge is rather more difficult than in a beam centrifuge. Nevertheless, the challenges of model-making also offer another dimension to this process. The techniques developed for the sample preparation in the ETH Zurich Drum Centrifuge will be described in this paper. This includes a short description of the machine and the associated equipment, together with some preliminary results and findings of a study on model-making in sand. Preparation of clay samples is also mentioned, although some of these findings are not restricted to drum centrifuges.