Model Railway Magic....: My procedure for ballast

TRACK-WORK

I began by slicing thin strips of masking tape to the same width as the rail tops. followed by a general sploshing on of various shades of brown, rust and dirt. Once dried the masking tape was peeled off easily.

After a good railtop cleaning session the ballast was ready to apply

Ballast is a mixture of fine sand (sieved) and crushed ballast, using a mortar and pestle to grind down the rocks to a much finer texture. The sand was painted light grey by pouring in a good quantity of poster paint, stirring thoroughly and baking in an oven till dry. the two ingredients were mixed in a large container and here we see the result.

After using an old perfume bottle to dampen the new texture and prevent surface tension and of course those horrid blobs of PVA/Water mix destroying your good work I applied the 50/50 water glue mix with a dropper.

making sure there is a nice gap under the rails

Dusting off with weathering powders (greys) not too dirty track here as its a siding and will be weedy.

Nice and neat ballast

scenic work to do

Scenic work applied

Below:- the use of various grades or lengths and colours of static grass achieves a more varied effect.

Below:- I love grubby grimy track which looks used . The grass was applied with a static grass application tool , of course one has to be aware that grass won’t generally grow on wood unless they’re rotten !!

Notice below:- the various weathering powders used around the track, they’re brushed in stiffly. Notice also the faded yellow paint on the sleeper which marks the fouling point.