Experiments in Track Weathering & Ballast
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- Опубликовано: 5 окт 2024
- In this video, I'll do some experimenting with track weathering techniques, and lay 12 different ballasts on a ~4 foot section of HO Scale flex track installed on a board. I am in search of the right ballast to use in South Yard, as well as the Main through South Yard, and this experiment has also given me some ideas on how to make the track - both the rails and ties - look the best I can through the yard. This is important, as the layout here is only about as wide as the yard itself - with the exception of some building flats along the backdrop, the tracks will be the whole model in this area.
After incorporating my original shelf layout into the larger layout, the plan for completing my HO Scale Deepwater and Manchester Railroad has been to work Southbound (right to left), moving to the left as scenes are completed. The layout will be in several phases at once, keeping things fresh and interesting as I switch between them.
Special thanks to Sean of the Midland and Dorchester Railroad Channel for the idea of testing ballast types using the sample size packets available from Arizona Rock and Mineral. Check out Sean's Channel here:
/ @themidlanddorchesterr...
I've watched so many different videos the last few days about ballasts and painting track. Even though you didn't show us the how, you definitely walked is through your thoughts. Great video. Thank you.
Thank you! as for the how, I spoon the ballast into the center of the track, and along each side on the outside of the rails, too. Then I use an old 2" brush with the bristles cut way short to move the bulk of it off the ties, and come back for the straggles with a smaller brush. Then I give it a thorough soaking with Isopropyl alcohol in a mister bottle, and use a pipette to apply *very* diluted matte mod podge over the whole thing. Hope that helps!
@@johnarthur6302 that helps very much. What's your ratio of water to mod podge?
A bunch of excellent ideas; sample bags, experiments with different weathering materials and photos of the real world to follow. Thanks for sharing John.
Glad you enjoyed it!
👏👏👏 Nicely done John! I’m glad the experiments turned out the way you were hoping. Appreciate the credit but you took my rough mess and made it 10X better. Looking forward to seeing the ballast in the yard.
Thanks for the idea! I turned mine into a mess for sure, too!
Excellent video! I’m really impressed you took the time and experimented with all of those materials. This is a great guide for anyone who wants to start ballasting and weathering their track. You did all the work for us! I’m hoping you show us your application methods in the future.
Thank you very much! I have toyed with the idea of a side by side on diluted white glue vs diluted mod podge. When I first switched to Mod Podge, it was striking to me how much better it absorbed into the ballast.
Thanks for the testing, John. I think I'm going to play with the airbrush and see what I can come up with.
Definitely a sound method as well!
hi John...iagrre with the real rust & the N scale ballast.. great video & thx 4 sharing.. vinny
Thanks Vinny! 👍 was fun to try some different techniques, and I'll be more confident in employing them on the layout itself having tried them first!
Just saw an excerpt of one of your recent videos on Roy Smith's Dispatch. Been watching your vids for a while, and now I'm subscribed!
Thank you for subscribing! Was really great of him to mention my layout on his channel!
Nice examples John. I really like that real rust and the UP Grey Blend. That UP blend looks just like the pic I sent you the other day! - Jason
It sure does, Thanks again for the pic Jason!
Great experiment and great examples . Very nice result. great stuff.
Thank you! Cheers!
Look very realistic and awesome! Good job! 👍🙂
Thank you so much 😀
This is such a super useful and informative video. I got so much from this and will be referring back as I start detailing the track on my own layout. Thanks so much for sharing!
You are so welcome! Thank you for the comment!
Good update video keep posting updates up on the layout
Thank you!
Great video, and super helpful! Thank you!
Thank you!
wow, great job. Smart idea. I would have put all ht ballast down on my layout and then decided I didn't like it lol
This is what's happened now when I look at the ballast I used in the creek scene!
that looks really cool
Thank you!
John, that was a very informative video and I'm glad you took the extra effort with the track. One suggestion, I have noticed you pan very fast in some of your videos and it makes it hard to digest what I'm seeing. Would you please slow it down some? Thanks for your great videos.
Great suggestion! I will try my best to remember to slow pans down. I agree with you and it bothers me too when other folks do it too fast!
Well done video!! Seeing the sample packs, I should have done that. But, trial and error and custom mixing is cool, too!! You mentioned in your video, you used sidewalk chalk, so to speak. Have you tried, or thought about using pastel chalk sticks from a hobby store? The reason I ask, is because that is what I have used previously and with the AR&M ballst have had great results.
I did consider that I had used an especially poor chalk, but it is what I had laying around. I also had the weathering powders laying around and they were clearly superior. I think pastel would have been a nice middle ground there in cost but at high quality. great thought, thank you!
@@johnarthur6302 the sticks that I use are from Hobby Lobby. They typically are on sale; for the ones that I use they run about $6 (USD for those outside the U.S.) and just need grated down. I use what I need, and if I need more, I just grate some more. I have used them to weather track, as well as, weather cars. I have looked into pan pastels but, for the cost, I can achieve the smae outcome using other methods. Just some ideas and thanks for your response.
Great work John! And thanks for sharing your techniques. How did you clean the track between applications of paints?
You're welcome! I put a rag over the end of my finger and wiped the tops when they were still a bit tacky, and then used a bright boy once things cured a bit more.
John if you haven't check out Trackside Scenery RUclips channel he has done a video on this very subject. I follow what he does with a couple of changes. Paynes grey instead of black for the first layer of paint on the ties. I use pastels for the rust colour mixed with IPA much better than cheap chalk to only cost me about £4 per pack of 12 colours from amazon. Then tidy the ties up with a cheep dirty pale muddy river colour let that fully dry before weathering all with a black and dark grey pastel mix. Ballast I mix my own from natural material I have collected. Neil
I have seen his videos and based that first method on what I saw - I think most of the issue I had was just not choosing the correct cheap chalk colors. The dulling down with soot color, I also picked up from his videos. Also, my photo backdrops are from Trackside Scenery. I think your twists would work well also - thanks for sharing!
Interesting ! But have you noticed that when you get to coarse ballast, from my point of view, it gets a bit out of scale. And the too dark colors you seem to like less are to me the best matches. The SP gray is not bad as it comes to size but I like the overall look from far left side simply because the work done on the ties is highlighted by the ballast dark colors. A question of taste... Ballast is MOST of the time very badly done especially when there are a lot of rail to cover. Again... Interesting !
I have noticed that - I like using finer ground ballast for sure. there is more variation than we give credit for on the prototype... right down to sometimes it is more weather than others!
@@johnarthur6302 Hi. Many thanks for answering. There are so many ways and videos showing how to paint tracks and ballasting them.
Most of the time, ballast is a mix of several stone colors. And it's granulometry varies a lot even on the main line.
At the end, it's a question of taste because any color or type can be seen in real life. Keep on your good work.
Just stumbled across your video, about a month old now. Interesting investigation. One question though, about 14-1/2 minutes in you're talking about glue and it sounds like you mix water and Mod Podge at 3:1 (similar to Luke Towan) but, you comment something about another 2 parts alcohol. Are you actually mixing the alcohol with the diluted Mod Podge? I've never tried that. I do alcohol first then a 3-5% soap then diluted glue, just to keep ballast from floating. Yours looks great. Thanks for the video.
Thank you Pat. Yes, I sure did mix both water and alcohol into the diluted glue.
I've found that adding the alcohol helps speed up the water evaporation and aids in the drying process. Sometimes that glue/water mixture takes forever to dry! But then I'm sure I don't have a problem with patience...
@@thomream1888 Thanks Thom, that's good to know. I live in Florida (US) where low humidity is 80% so everything gives up moisture quickly. John's mixture would actually make the dilution 5:1, which concerned me that it might not hold, but his ballast looks great and didn't appear to move. I'm definately trying his method when I start back ballasting again.
Hi Pat - talk about contrasts... I live in the Central Valley (Kali) and it's usually DRY! Just the opposite of your location, huh!? But I've not had any issues with ballast failure, and I'm using a modular layout format so things do get bumped around a little bit. And the alcohol I use is vodka rather than IPA, so it has other uses as well. But it's best not to consume the, uh, "ballast mix" until AFTER the trackwork is done. One of my buddies got a little confused and applied the vodka directly to his bloodstream (he drank the vodka, NOT glue!) and when the tracks had a little bit of wobble to it, he announced it was supposed to be be a branch line... Funny thing, it actually looked pretty good!
Good luck on your layout.
@@thomream1888 Hi Guys. It's only been 2 months but, I finally got to a point of applying ballast. Following John's video, 3 parts water, 2 parts alcohol (91%), 1 part Mod Podge and a few drops of soap. The liquid was drying as it seeped out of the ballast onto the baseboard. No ballast floating, which is a first for me. Looks great. It did take a second dose to actually 'set' the ballast, but I was doing 3 or 4 before. You Kali folks are pretty sharp. Judging by your vodka description, which would only be 40% alcohol, I could probably mix at 4-1-1 for your result. Thanks again and hope y'all have a great weekend.
I painted the rust on after I painted the ties and after the
Sorry,
Ballast . It makes it look like the rust is running down on to ballast.
thats a good technique, too. I have since used an airbrush for the ties, and touched up the rail rust afterwards. It does look good that way!
Would you share the link for the website to order the sample ballast packs from?
It was the Arizona rock and mineral website - there is a sample option kind of buried. Poke around their site and you’ll find it, I can’t recall exactly where it was but it was on their website.