Gentlemen,
Which ballast would best represent a gravel parking lot? The fine Ballast, Course Ballast or a mixture of both? I’m building a salvage yard and it’s gonna be all gravel.
Chad
You did not mention scale so I will assume HO which I model also. If this is a new parking area then go for the finest gravel product of your choice. If this is a busy area even just a few months old then little gravel surrounding mud and pot holes would do.
Pete
You may want to consider gray painted sand. Think of the scale for a second. A gravel parking lot would be covered with 1/2" or 3/4" crushed stone. That’s less than 0.01" in HO scale. Coarse ballast is around 1/8" on average, and fine is around 1/32".
I use the coarse ballast to make “authentic” New England stone walls… and not much else.
I don’t think a salvage yard would spend much on their yard. I would get some real sand, sift it through a tea strainer and use the fines. The only area that might get some care would be from the enterance to the unloading point.
Have fun,
Richard
I agree. Most of the salvage yards I’ve seen are covered in dirt and some weeds. The only gravel is where most of the customers are parked and around the office.
On a general note, the size of gravel may also depend on what the traffic patterns are going in and out of the lot. For example where I work we have large trucks come in for deliveries and tire repairs. The gravel is mostly rather large in order to handle the traffic. Around the other side of the building where there is little to no heavy traffic but the occasional pickup truck and forklift, there is smaller gravel. The larger gravel is harder to drive and walk on from personal experience.
thank you guys for your input. It’s giving me some good Ideas.
What I did for a gravel parking lot is got some fine ballast and rolled it with a steel pipe on a old glass cutting board to crush it into even smaller pieces.
Texture paint in a rattle can. Any ballast is too large.
The best dirt/gravel lots I have seen were made with tile grout. It is pretty fine in its size. A push in with a finger or thumb in spots and filled with your favourite fake water can make good mud puddles.
Brent[C):-)]
I’ve done the same here…
There is a way of doing somewhat the same thing using a clay sifter as well. I’ve used it on dried clay from Pottery Supply House then as I’ve continually crushed it into smaller bits I would then save the various sizes in different containers…the clay sifter basically holds smaller sizes of screens for ever smaller sizes of stone then…