I’m having some issues with some scenery I’ve just applied few days ago, I applied some ballast in a area and it started to crack and lift up? What can be causing this .
Track ballast?
I’ve had that happen. My guess is you didn’t wait long enough for it to totally harden. Depending on the materials you use, it can take several days, particularly in a humid environment.
I put down the ballast and then wet it with straight isopropyl alcohol, right from the bottle. Either the 70% or 90% works fine. I apply the alcohol drop by drop with a pipette, which is a hobbyists eyedropper. I use white glue for an adhesive, mixed 1 part glue to 3 parts water. I do the mixing in an old Elmer’s Glue bottle, and then I just dribble it on to the wet ballast. Alcohol works much better than the “wet water” mixtures with dish soap or whatever.
Don’t use a spray bottle unless you like cleaning up a mess.
Ballast issues, huh?
My guess, I will second MisterBeasley, probably was not quite cured. When it happened to me, it was WS Trackbed. Ran the layout, weight of the locomotives compressed the Trackbed just enough to “fracture” the partially cured ballast apart into segments. Looked horrible. Changed from Trackbed to cork, just so that if I miss-time my cure time, it won’t compress enough to matter. Without more details, or even a photo, really can not do more than just guess. But, mine is also not cured, but added that there maybe was some weight applied to the area also… Until proven otherwise, of course! [:)]
It sounds to me as if you didn’t apply enough wetting agent before adding the glue mixture. With insufficient wetting, the glue will pentrate only as deep as the wetting agent. When it dries, it forms a crust atop the loose material below, and can easily crack.
Wayne
I really like Cody Grivno’s two step approach to applying ballast on the shoulders. It works great!
I agree. I think your problem was insufficient pre-wetting of the ballast. I add adhesive to the top, and don’t stop until it oozes out the bottom.
A couple of other observations over the years: unless your tap water is very pure, filter it or use distilled water, and use 2 drops of dishwashing lliquid per cup of solution. Also, I prefer to use matte medium over glue. Yes, it’s more expensive, but it’s also more flexible when dry, and I think that makes a difference.