Painting on ballast paste.

[gbcutter]

Back in the 50's, when I first got into model railroading, my Dad found some "ballast paste" which was basically fine sand mixed with gray paint. Was easy to apply and looked pretty good. Has anyone seen anything like this lately? Has anyone tried mixing his own? Does this sound like a crazy idea?

My track is already laid, so it is a bit late to use the ballast tape from Busch. I pre-painted most of my roadbed with spray-on textured paint from Rust-Oleum and Plasti-Kote, which really looks good, but now I need to ballast a few areas that I skipped for some reason.

[jrbernier]

  I think what you remember was a product from Tru-Scale.  They also used it on their 'Ready Track'(it was just painted on the sides of the milled roadbed).  I never thought it looked all that realistic, but some folks liked it.

  In your situation, I would just spray some of that spray can paint you used in a cup and use a small brush to paint in the areas to be covered.

 

Jim

 

[gbcutter]

As it turns out, I decided to experiment with my own idea of making ballast paint. I mixed some black and white tempura (poster) paint until I got the right shade of gray, then mixed in some ballast and water until I got the right consistency. It works great, and I think it looks almost as good as glued-on ballast. The brush has to be rinsed out regularly, since the ballast builds up in the bristles, and long stretches of this "ballast paint" alone don't look so realistic, but for paatches or tight spots, I think it looks good. IMHO

[Rotorranch]

I'd like to see the results! I've wondered about doing something like that.

Rotor