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Ballast size question
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The "walking" ballast somtimes used in yards and to form trackside walkways is (in this country) "Meldon Dust"... and just that. It will pass through a 1/4" grid... try that to scale! :-) <br />I'd start by using an extremely fine sandpaper... any colouring will reduce the apparent texture / grain size. <br /> <br />Then again... once it gets compacted and/or other stuff in it, it becomes pretty much a smooth surface like asphalt... <br /> <br />One guide (if you can get to a safe location) is to walk up not looking at the material you are interested in (surprisingly hard to do) stop, close your eyes, open them and see how much impact that material / subject makes in your view. The clever bit is to NOT look directly at what you are interested in. ...it's a bit like night vision ... you can do it... but HOW? <br /> <br />I guess the reverse is that when you first look at a photo of the model (which concentrates the image) you don't want things like the ballast to leap out at you... try putting a similar picture of the real thing next to a picture of the model. <br /> <br />I think that it's the same with weathering. <br /> <br />Which means that you sometimes want the stuff to leap out and hit you... probably only when it's supposed to be new. <br /> <br />After all this stuff on ballast I'm so hoping to see lots of models with diffferent ballast and ties on different parts of the trackwork.
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