Ballast and track weathering
Ballasting
For ballast I used Woodland Scenics Fine Gray straight. I used the classic, well known method for ballasting:
Lay the ballast dry;
Soak the ballast with straight denaturated alcohol (isopropyl works as well);
Soak the ballast with diluted white glue (50% white glue, 40% water, 10% denaturated alcohol);
Weathering
I think one of the most important elements of scenery is track. Properly ballasted track is not enough for a convincing scene. Track needs to be weathered. I airbrushed all the tracks with Floquil Railroad Tie Brown before ballasting. After ballasting, I weathered the ties and ballast between the rail using a mix of 50-50 black powdered pigments and plaster of Paris, using a wide enough brush to spread the mix along the main line.
Click for a link to a video howto I did to show track ballasting.
These techniques are also demonstrated in video by Joe Fugate and are downloadable for few bucks at Model Trains Video website.
Please note that I'm not affiliated with Model Trains Video in any way, I just have the whole DVD catalog and found Joe's tips and trick very helpful.
3 comments:
you could do your own line of videos--that track and grass and fence and everything else looks great--what a believable scene! i still can't believe this was just spline roadbed only a few months ago.
Thanks Jamie,
I actually don't believe it, too. But it's there, and I think it looks decent. As for my videos, I will stick to YouTube for now :-)
Denny, really nice work. I have been very very busy, with my new home, but some times I have the time to check your site. What a fantastic work! Like Jamie said, a few months ago that was bare bench work, now you have a really cool scene! Amazing job! Keep it up!
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