Making a mess of Casper yard?

[riogrande5761]

I think Dave pointed out something I agree with.

Of course one easy fix for the color and appearance is paint, spray or airbrush.

Of course the best thing is to hunt for photos for the yard you are trying to copy and see how it looks.  Often there are pictures in the Morning Sun Color series for particular railroads which I HIGHLY recommend if you are a fan of a railroad.

[gmpullman]

One of my final processes of track ballasting/weathering is to make several light passes over the track using an airbrush and thinned washes of grimy black (gray, actually) and dirt (tan/burnt seinna color). This blends everything together and adds those ever-present grease/soot/cinder stains.

Good Luck, Ed

[Pruitt]

hon30critter

Are you shaking the sifter or tapping it? 

Dave,

Every light-colored splotch is below a light fingernail tap on the sifter. I was hoping for a more even distribtion, but...

I'm using a small kitchen (tea) sifter. Either I need a finer sifter or a lot more practice!

[E-L man tom]

Mark,

Like "Ja Bear", I'm not at that stage yet (new layout room just recently built), I have two adages for you.

     1. I consider what you're doing as a work in progress, and,

     2. there is a prototype for everything.

When I first saw your post, I thought "what a mess", but when I saw your progress, I thought you to be on the right track (no pun intended). My thinking is that whatever you do it will be a great looking yard. All you have to do is get the coloring righ (or close) with what you're trying to model. With coloring, with photos, even those can be different, depending on the light at the time. 

 

[trainnut1250]

Mark,

 

Some suggestions:

 

Even out the color variations they are too stark – too much contrast between colors. Try using subtle colors or simply putting down a light coat of a neutral color over the whole area to tone it down.

 

Ballast in waves or separate passes/coats. I usually will do a rough fill coat to get the levels right, then a finish coat and then usually a touch up coat to tie things together. I let each coat dry overnight to get a good idea of what I have to work with before making the next pass.

 

Right now: I would add another coat of finer material to what you have now. It should tone down and fill in the gaps.

 

More detail and discussion:

 

Method: I would think of the plaster and all the filler as just the first step. Think of it as building in layers. The bottom layers are just creating the basic contours they don’t have to be perfect. The one thing to keep in mind is to not get them too high so that your final coat is higher than you would like. I would paint the plaster first before continuing as was suggested.

 

Moving forward, I would ditch the plaster completely as it is difficult to control while wet, makes a mess, has to scraped or chipped if it gets too high or where it doesn’t want to be, and has to be painted or colored to not show through white in spots that you might miss.

 

 

Examples of the technique:

 

These use real dirt but the ideas are the same for regular ballast.

 

 

 

Here the base coat is down – note  the holes in the coverage.

 

 

 

 

Here is the base coat with the final coat over it...

 

 

 

 

Here is the final coat with some weathering chalks added to the mix.

 

 

 

 

Here is an exaple of final coats mixed between dirt and ballast.

 

 

 

Hopefully this post is helpful...I think you are on the way to getting the look you want ...Keep working on it..

 

Guy

 

 

[Pruitt]

Tom, 

Still a bit of a mess for sure, but I do see a way forward.

Guy,

Great shots! I hope I can ultimately come up with a finished product somewhere near your quality of work. I appreciate your suggestions, and will incorporate them when I make further attempts.

Meanwhile, I've shifted focus to the engine facilities for a few weeks. I'm better at mecahnical construction than scenery building, I think.