No problem. I usually have to tell folks I'm the yogurt or bread (San Francisco), not the detective:angel:. John C. As for painting track: I do this before ballasting, using an airbrush. A coat of something like rail brown first, and then a light overspray of grimy black. After ballasting, I sometimes use chalks or powdered graphite to weather things some more. I've tried to attach an image of part of my bedroom layout, but I'm not sure I know how to do this, so let's see if it works.
Great discussion. What I'll add to all the above is: 1) Ballasting, while tedious, is so well worth it in terms of appearance that I do it. I also vote for always gluing down the ballast. 2) I don't use a sprayer, I can not easily control where and how all the wet-water mist goes. Instead, I just use an eye-dropper for the wetting solution as well. Works well for me and I can control exactly where the wetting solution goes (and more importantly, doesn't go). Yes, I am one of the 'do only a foot or two at a time' crowd. 3) One of the big challenges we all have is doing ballasting of turnouts, and avoiding gluing them shut. What I do about that is make a small thumbnail-sized 'glob' of ballast and 50/50 water-glue mixture, and then with a small screwdriver tip, carefully spoon that mixture into the appropriate places on the turnout. This assures that I would not glue shut the turnout, or in my case, the internal Kato switch machine. Here's those results: You can see more about my ballasting experiences at: http://home.comcast.net/~j.sing/Peavine_Layout_Overview.html Hope this helps!
A whole post of great ideas about ballasting. Great ideas that have worked. Painting of the ties and the rail really does improve the looks of the layout. You can use a small spray gun or apply the floquil paints with a brush. Painting the rails does not take as long as ballasting but it does equal going to the dentist for a root canal procedure.
This is the way I do the ballasting job. In Belgium they sell a powderglue to use for hanging up wallpaper. For the wallpaper job you have to mix this powder with water. What I do is mix 2 spoons of rock balast with one spoon of the dry powder. Mix thourouhgly and spread the mixture like you guys do with your balast. Then a few drops of dishwasher soap and a lot of water in a spray can and mist the balast-powderglue mixture. Let dry for 48 hours and everything is rock hard.
I have been airbrushing the rust, but chalk and Rustall sound like a better idea. I do use black chalk around turnouts to simulate grease. completely nuts: I have heard of this technique of using some type of powder, but not wallpaper powder. FWIW, this is Rustall.
I recieved a Micro-Mark catalogue today and the image of having to lay on a layout came to mind.. This creeper would help that and seems as if it would be a lot moe comfortable as well. http://www.ares-server.com/Ares/Ares.asp?MerchantID=RET01229&Action=Catalog&Type=Product&ID=83876 but it still is money that could go towards some new SD70's.... -NUTEY-
Nutey Take a careful look at how much space you need on the bottom. If you have relatively narrow aisles, it won't do. I have looked at it long and hard and have decided a flat two step wooden box will do. I am 36" inches deep around the room and won't need that much extension as long as I have the box under my feet. Also, decorating back to front will help alleviate the problems.
I think that's the coolest small layout I've ever seen. Usually I see a small layout and just glance at it, but yours is so well done I couldn't stop looking at it. Very well done, great scene!
Am I only one that uses a ballasting tool? It make the work easier for me. Yes it takes time but not as much as pouring it on the track in three steps. The ballasting tool puts ballast between and beside the tracks at the same time. After a little clean up with a one inch paint pad. Then I flood it with wet water glue. Then I'll take an old toothbrush to clean the track up. If you look at your local tracks you will find that the ballast is rarely just gray. Don't worry about matching ballast colors. I is very rare that any section of ballast matches any other. In truth you should mix two or three colors together to get a more realistic coloration. This also disguises the differences in the sections. I have used "art sand" the type used for pouring into bottles. It comes in many colors some more realistic than others. I will mix white, gray and black. Other colors can be added to tint the ballast to localize it. Browns and tans are normal. You could add a light blue to represent southern blue granite. or add reds to match western sandstone. Pink added to the mix will give you the stone used by the C&NW and now the UP. Some of the brighter colors can be used for magical or mystery ores.
Are you referring to the gray colored cylinder tool with the three holes on the bottom? It works, but I found that there was an excess of ballast between the rails and I had to paint brush it out anyway.
I’ve stated this on Trainboard before but it never gets old. Eldon’s first rule of ballasting; “You can never have too much alcohol when ballasting your track. I begin with two or three shot of Jack Daniel’s, with another shot every ten minutes or three feet of track whichever comes first.” Using this method you’ll usually pass-out before reaching the point where you want to burn your house down around the layout. For a medium sized layout I have a lot of track with an overabundance of turnouts and crossings all of which adds to the. . . Excitement?. . .Fun?. . .Challenge? of ballasting track.
Eldon’s first rule of ballasting; “You can never have too much alcohol when ballasting your track. I begin with two or three shot of Jack Daniel’s, with another shot every ten minutes or three feet of track whichever comes first.” But when this isn't an option consider Kato unitrack. IMO it looks fine after the rest of the scenery is in place....Mike
Here's my experiment along those lines: Shuriken Module: Ballasting I'll probably do something similar when I ballast my bridge module, although I'll probably do something more "conventional" between the rails to finish the job.
