I do a dirty wash on my unitrack, usually black and rusty on the plastic part and paint the rails then just ballast lightly on the roadbed, I paint the plastic turnouts too
I don't use a vacuum for ballast jobs... I just use a wide small paintbrush to get things back into place by the roadbed. But a vacuum is a must-have for doing other scenery.
I followed Mike Fifer And Roy Smith's advice about ballasting my Kato N scale track I have 21 #6 turnouts and they don't miss a trick. Plus, I do not secure the track down to the board. Just let the ballast hold it in place. You haven't done bad with your first layout You'll improve as time goes by.
I have sprayed glue all over it, wipe the rails clean, then hand shake fine ballast all over the flex trak, on the sides only on Kato unitrak. I wipe again then leave it alone for a day or two. Then I vacuum it and run a crappy engine and some cars to test it lol.
Thanks for explaining the bird being in the background. I thought there might be a family pet observing the process.
I do a dirty wash on my unitrack, usually black and rusty on the plastic part and paint the rails then just ballast lightly on the roadbed, I paint the plastic turnouts too
I guess you need to have the Shop Vac at the ready for ballast that gets distributed in the wrong places.
I don't use a vacuum for ballast jobs... I just use a wide small paintbrush to get things back into place by the roadbed. But a vacuum is a must-have for doing other scenery.
I followed Mike Fifer And Roy Smith's advice about ballasting my Kato N scale track I have 21 #6 turnouts and they don't miss a trick. Plus, I do not secure the track down to the board. Just let the ballast hold it in place. You haven't done bad with your first layout You'll improve as time goes by.
Curious if anyone has ever tried to ballast doubletrack?
Check out my most recent videos that include the Kato double crossover.... Let me know if that doesn't answer your question.
I have sprayed glue all over it, wipe the rails clean, then hand shake fine ballast all over the flex trak, on the sides only on Kato unitrak. I wipe again then leave it alone for a day or two. Then I vacuum it and run a crappy engine and some cars to test it lol.
You may want to look into a finer grain of ballast. What you have looks like it is subgrade.
It's Arizona Rock & Mineral N scale ballast