I’m in the process of putting together the Woodland Scenics Subterrain Scenery Kit (N scale), and have come to the ballasting part. This is my first attempt at ballasting, and it’s turning out to be a bit tricky. Here are some pictures of the track on the WS foam roadbed, with ballast in place but not “glued” on yet. The ballast is what came in the Scenery Kit, the same as “fine” ballast sold by WS separately.
Top-down view:
Side view:
A close-up of the ties:
The part that’s been giving me the most trouble is covering the sharp side inclines of the foam roadbed with enough ballast to cover it completely, without overcovering them. I think I finally found a way to do it by brushing up the sides of the roadbed. What do you think?
Also, how the heck do you keep the top of the ties clear of the ballast? It seems every brushstroke (I’m using a soft-bristled sable no. 3 brush) seems to collect ballast and deposit them all over the place. I wonder if the brush’s motion is generating static electricity?
I would very much appreciate any comments and suggestions.
Not too bad. I paint the shoulders of the road bed with glue and sprinkle ballast on them first. Then I go back and do the rest of the ballast work. After the ballast glue dries, you can just rub your finger lightly over the ties to get rid of the excess. A toothpick along the sides of the rails will get rid of any Klingons.[:D]
If your using Woodland Scenics ballast you might have some static problems. That stuffs pretty light and flies around pretty EZ. Ballast work takes a LONG time to do. Don’t rush it.
Try lightly tapping the handle of your paintbrush on the tops of the rails to see if the ballast will leave the tops of the ties. It works quite well, usually.
Later, once your glue has dried, you will have to go over the ties and rail webs with something, maybe a coffee stir stick, and scrape away any ballast hung up there. Don’t forget to vacuum afterwards.
It depends on scale and your hand but the tool is one of your fingers:-)
Wipe a finger that fits well between the rails fore and backwards. You will feel how the finger rolls over the ballast on top of the ties. After some strokes the feeling will change and your finger touches the ties without the ballast.
ps. Yes, you will feel the finger for some days if you do a lot of balasting;-)
I know that right now you’re only experimenting, but when you do start to ballast the layout paint and weather the ties/ rails first. Sanding or knocking the sharp shoulder off the roadbed and following the suggestion of painting on the glue will stop the problems of having the edge show through the ballast. I found that mixing a portion of real stone ballast with the light hard to manage WS stuff allowed much better overall contol. After setting the ballast and prior to wetting lightly blow at an angle with short puffs. This will clear the ties of the stray grains. Also I have found that when initially wetting, allow a fine mist to rain down until the surface will allow a heavier spray to really wet the ballast. A mixture of wet water/ alcohol seems to work better when I glue ballast.
Thank you for all the good advice so far. The pre-gluing the inclines sounds great, gotta try that. I don’t know that the foam roadbeds can be easily cut or sanded to get rid of the sharp angle. Thanks also for the advice on clearing the top of the ties.
I’m with faraway, use your finger and not a brush to apply the ballast between the ties. I also preglue some ballast on the incline, there are a few bare spots where the roadbed peeks through, so I go back and touch them up when I am ballasting the next time around, also I’m using Arizona Rock & Mineral ballast, and I don’t know if that makes a difference or not. Joe Fugate has a great video pdf file on the MR mag web site on applying ballast and waethering track. You might want to try checking it out.
I brush on a mixture of 50/50 water and white glue, on the side slopes of the cork ballast. Let it dry overnight. The next morning, I use my shopvac to vacuum off the excess. I take a ladies nylon ankle high stocking, and shove it a few inches down the shopvac hose, with the ends rolled over the edge of the hose. Then I put the nozzle back on the vacuum hose. Now you have a small nylon bag, to catch all the excess ballast that you vacuum off, and it can be used again, instead of lost in the vacuum cleaner dirt. You can get a package of six at k-mart for a buck or two. Then I go back and ballast the flat surface between the rails. Use a foam brush, and it won’t flip the little ballast stones all over the place.
Another bit of advise. When you start doing the layout, don’t breath, sneeze or bump the table. You can screw up a couple hours worth of work REAL quick! (so I’ve heard…[:-^])
