Joe, I’m just getting started on ballasting and weathering the track on my first layout so your article and video pdf are a godsend. I have two questions:
When you say “dry tempera paint” are you referring to powdered paints? I checked both Michael’s and A C Moore and all I could find were liquid tempera paints.
I have a double-track mainline. I understand the tapering of the contours of the roadbed when ballasting. What is prototypical for between mainline tracks? Do you taper both sides or more or less make the middle area level?
I’m not Joe but I can answer your questions. Answer 1: http://www.dickblick.com/zz000/04/ Answer 2: Look at some photos of your prototype. You can’t get any closer.
Thanks for the website. I’ll take back the liquid that I purchased. I don’t have a prototype and everything close to my home is a single track main. I’ll keep looking for photos though. Thanks again.
yes, joe is talking about dry tempra paints…i got them from Hobby Lobby…i too could only find the wet paints but finally found the dry ones on a shelf on the ground floor…maybe you can get Hobby Lobby to special order them for you…they must be dry because you are doing a technique called “zip texturing” in which dry plaster mixed with the dry tempra paints are sprinkled onto a wet surface of the layout…the dry plaster and paint absorbs the water creating a hard rough surface when it dries…Joe has the paint to plaster formula mixtures here titled: FORUM CLINIC: Building realistic scenery…chuck
To answer the other question …yes to both…you can make the track one single ballast track but most prototypical operations make them separate ballast grades…for example…the BNSF starts a double main in Clovis N.M. all the way to California …the route is two tracks with their own ballast grades for each track but there are sections where the grade is one single ballast grade for both tracks…chuck
It’s unfortunate that in our instant microwave society tempera paint now equals “we’ll add the water for you and let you pay for us to ship all that water around too” … . So now our hands are so broke we can’t mix a little water into some powdered paint? Sheesh. Okay, off the soapbox.
The secret is to google on this phrase: Crayola Powder Paint … you’ll find pages and pages of references and can price shop to your heart’s content.
As to ballast on a double track main, both tracks tend to have a ballast slope, with a dip in the middle. There’s less ballast to maintain that way. Remember the ballast is there primarily to give the ties something to sit in and to give them good drainage. Past the ties, you just let the ballast fall off into a natural slope for any remaining good drainage. In and of itself, the ballast doesn’t do anything for the roadbed … so spreading a lot of gravel around there just means using more gravel without much gain – and more to maintain.
Thanks very much Joe. I did find black in the dry paint today but will do the google search as well. I am helping set up and tear down an HO module layout at a Greenburg show this weekend. However my weekend project for my layout is to begin the ballast and weathering process on my home layout using your techniques.