I ran across a rumor that a 50/50 mixture of rubbing alcohol and white glue can be applied directly to dry ballast without the need for any prewetting of the ballast. Anyone ever hear of this or have any exprience w/the method?
I don’t remember the proportions of glue to alcohol, but I did see a post here or on another forum by someone who used a glue-alcohol mixture with success. I’ll see if I can find it.
I used a similar trick and succeeded in making a big mess!
I use 50% matte mod pog, 40% water and about 10% rubbing alcohol. This mix soaks in pretty good without pre wetting. I do 1 coat with the eyedropper method, and when that dries, I go back over it with a spray bottle with the same mix.
You could probably add some alcohol to the Woodland Scenic glue and get the same results.
I use the more standard technique of pre-wetting and then applying glue, but I do both with an eyedropper so I don’t make a mess. Works for me. Since the time-consuming part of ballasting is spreading and arranging the ballast, spending a few extra minutes with the wetting step is no big deal.
Ohhh, yeah. Quite a few modellers will tell you that this is their least favourite part of the hobby. It is finicky, and doesn’t look very good if the ballast gets all over the place. So, I don’t use droppers, but I have felt more comfortable gluing ballast that has been primed to accept the glue mix by wetting it first with anywhere from 30-70% alcohol in water.
I use an empty glue container that has painter’s tape over the neck aperture. I prick the tape once with a stout pin. When I invert the bottle, it will dribble out unless I compress the bottle’s sides with my hand. It takes 20 seconds to wet all the ballast along 2’ of track. Another 30 seconds to dribble the light glue mix out of a suitable container, and you have your ballast drying essentially undisturbed. Wipe the rail tops immediately!
Edit. The word is p.r.i.c.k. [:-^]
Another advantage of prewetting the ballast is that you can gradually mist until the ballast is wet. Wet ballast tends to stay put. I think that flooding dry ballast w/ glue/alcohol mix may cause the ballast to move. I will try a sample section the next time I ballast though. I always add alcohol to the wet water anyway.
I’ve never seen anyone try wetting and glueing all in one operation, but while working on a section of track at the club, we did find that those ear syringe, the rubber squeeze ball type, that you usually use for babies or small children, work great for dribbling out the glue just right. It was much better than eye droppers or bottles.
Jarrell
for my HO layout; I didn’t pre-wet the ballast at all. I just put it down, spread it, then sprayed it with the WS scenic cement, and had NO problems with it.
Some of these ideas depend on what scale you are working with and what size ballast. I’m an N scaler and use fine ballast which moves really easily. I always prewet–and not with that “wet water” mix of dish soap and water either. This stuff will always wash fine ballast away before it soaks in. I mix 70% alcohol 1:1 with water and wet with this. Wet is well enough that is soaks all the way trough the ballast. Then I dribble on a 1:1 mix of water and white glue until is soaksall the way through the ballast and into the surrounding scenery and pools in the ballast. I have experimented with thinner mixes and they don’t hold. Also, if you don’t let the glue pool in the ballast it will settle to the bottom of the ballast, gluing it in place, but leaving the top loose. I’ve tried a lot of techniques and this works best for me in N scale.
Ron
How did the cement ever saturate the ballast? The surface tension alone would have caused some problems with complete saturation. Some times the cement will ball up and lay on top. I would check to see if it is fully cememted. This could have only bonded a crust on the ballast.
This happens on occasion when doing scenery and I have to give it a shot of wet water/ alcohol to allow the glue to sink in.
hey; I’m just saying that it worked perfectyy with no problems at all! I don’t know why; if it was the humidity in our basment, the heart from the furnace (which was about 10 feet away) or what; but it worked! (I should add; in some spots I just poured it on; straight from the bottle)
Must have something to do with the type of ballast. What kind are you using? WS “walnut shells” will give trouble, but I could see that heavier stone may work. For most mailline I’m using a blend of WS fine gray mixed w/ Scenic Xpress.
OK my 2 cents worth. I spray my wet water solution on with a fine mist sprayer. Spend a few bucks and get a good fine mist sprayer from a plant store or garden shop. I tried those dollar store cheapies and all they did was dribble out stuff all over everything. So you get wet water on other stuff you don’t want ballasted big deal it’s only water. I hold it high enough so it’s sort of like rain. Then I used to use an eye dropper with a 50/50 mix of white glue and water no alcohol for me. I’ve since switched to a lab bottle. It has a bent neck on it and holds a half quart. So if you desired to do so you could ballast a long length of track in one swoop without stopping. I recently picked up two great trick from watching Alan Kelleher video’s Greatest Model railroads. #1. paint the roadbed before you lay track ( if your using a fine gray ballast then use a gray close as you can get etc.) If by chance you miss a small spot it won’t be so prevalent with the cork brown showing through.
in my most recent case of ballasting my engine servicing yard. I sprayed the rails first from the side with Floquil rust and then rubbed the tops with a bright boy and then went back and sprayed Floquil Grimy Black straight down covering the ties and rails. I then cleaned the tops with a bright boy one more time. I spooned the ballast onto the track and trick #2 instead of using a brush to clean off the excess use a piece of foam and drag it down the track. It will clean the ballast off right to the top of the tie and not remove any of the ballast from between the ties making for a much better look.
I then spray and then glue using the methods I described above and I almost fell over because it look perfect. I amazed myself because quite honestly I really stink at it and now it looks like someone else did it which is fine with me… lol
I took the advice of one of the old timers I hang out with at my local train store and did a small section where I wanted to keep the ties br