Joe Fugate Modeling the 1980s SP Siskiyou Line in southern Oregon
QUOTE: Originally posted by jfugate TOPIC THIS POST: Ballasting and weathering track With the sky backdrop finished and the rough scenery plaster work done, I usually ballast and weather the track next. I use MicroEngineering flex track, codes 83, 70, and 55. I like this track because it has very tiny spike heads and a realistic randomness to the ties. Ballasted and weathered ME track looks better than handlaid, in my opinion. (NOTE: Model Railroader editor Andy Sperandeo asked me to submit an article on these techniques, which I have done. My article might appear late this year (Nov/Dec) or sometime next year, so watch for it. In the meantime, I'm going to be covering these techniques in the Siskiyou Line video series video volume 4 on scenery, among other things.) I ballast the track using Woodland Scenics fine gray ballast, which is a color that matches the prototype Siskiyou Line. You'll need to pick a color that is right for the region you model. Keep in mind that when you bond the ballast using the techniques I outline here that the color darkens slightly. I spread and shape the ballast using my fingers and a small stiff-bristled brush. I like to use my fingers because it gives me lots of control. I use the stiff-bristled bru***o brush ballast away from the rail sides and off the tops of the ties after doing the shaping with my fingers. You want your ballast to be even with the tops of the ties, but not *on* the ties. I use 70% isopropyl alcohol straight to wet the ballast prior to gluing. This pre-wetting step is essential because without it the glue will simply bead up all over the ballast and ruin all your careful shaping efforts. The alcohol is great because it goes right in without disturbing the ballast. I use an old white glue bottle, fill it with alcohol, set the tip to release just a drop at a time, and then dribble it all over the ballast until everything is soaked with alcohol. Next, I bond the ballast with a white glue solution. I mix 1 part white glue to 3 parts water, and add several drops of dish detergent to the mix so it will soak in readily. Carefully dribble the white glue all over the ballast and let it dry overnight. The white glue will displace a few ballast grains, but for the most part, things should stay put nicely if you follow these directions. For the few grains that always stray, after things have dried overnight, I take a small screwdriver and lightly scrape the stray grains off the rails and tie tops. Use light pressure on the rails so you don't strip any plastic spikeheads off the track (especially critical with ME track because of the tiny spikeheads). Vaccum to remove any loose ballast grains. I paint the sides of the rails with Pollyscale Roof Brown (mainline) or DRGW Depot Brown (sidings/spurs). I prefer waterbased paints, and Pollyscale sticks to the metal rails well. Use a size 00 brush, and don't fret if you get paint on the ties. If you look at real track, you'll see some of the weather color on the tie plates and ties under the rail -- so you're just making things more realistic if you get the rail weathering color on the ties around the base of the rail! Next, I use an old phonebook as a paint palate and mix some craft acrylic paint (black, brown, white) to get some black-brown and gray-brown color that I paint randomly on a few ties using a size 0 brush. Hit maybe 20-30% of the ties to give them some realistic variation. Paint spur and siding ties more weathered brown and gray tints to reflect the greater weathering and less maintenance they typically get. Let everything dry for about 30 minutes. Next, we need to weather between the rails. Looking at prototype track, it tends to weather differently between the rails than it does elsewhere. To simulate this, I mix 1 part plaster with 1-part black powered tempera paint and bru***his dry powdered mixture down the middle of the track (mainline). I mix 1 part black, 1 part yellow, 2 parts brown, and 4 parts plaster and bru***his dry powdered mixture down the middle of sidings and spurs. I mist the track with wet water to fix the plaster-tempera mix in place (it will also fade somewhat). The secret is the plaster in this mix -- that will make between-the-track weathering more or less permanent once you mist it with water and it dries. For extra heavy weathering, brush some more weathering powder between the rails while the track is still damp. Finally, I clean off the railheads with 600 grit sandpaper (poli***he railheads, really) and then vacuum. Here's a photo of some finished track done this way (from the MR article): (click on the photo for a closeup) Notice how realistic the track looks. If you treat the track like any other model and weather it appropriately, it will look great! NEXT TOPIC: Finishing the rough scenery: applying dirt/background grass
QUOTE: Originally posted by jfugate Electro: I'll see what I can find and try to post them soon.
QUOTE: Originally posted by jfugate Electro: If you follow the techniques I describe in here for ballasting your track, you should eliminate any shiny areas in your ballast. I need to take a closer look at the turnout in the photo and see if I missed any areas with tie and ballast weathering. If I missed something, that could explain the shiny area you are seeing. By the way, the ballasting section of this Forum Clinic is based on an article I wrote for MR. MR hasn't scheduled the piece yet, but I'm hoping it will appear late this year or early next year.
QUOTE: Originally posted by jfugate Electro: If I understand what you're seeing in the photo you reference, it could be there's a slight gloss on the ties around the closure rails of the turnout. It also looks like that part of the photo is a bit lighter than the rest, which could be exagerating the effect. This location on the layout is already 63" or so off the floor, and it's in the mushroomed part of the layout, so the 63" is from the 15" raised floor, making the actual track height here 78" from the room floor. The room ceiling is at 91" from the floor, leaving about 12" above this track to the ceiling. To get the shot above the camera is literally up against the room ceiling. You could never see that view in person, unless you have no head above your eyes (which would make for a *very* flat head). I say all that to point out that notcing any gloss in the track (if it's there) is hard to do in person because you can't get up over the track a lot in this location. So the camera may see things from this angle you'll never spot in person. The other thing that happens to leave shiny "artifacts" on the layout is using hot glue. I get shiny cobwebs all over the scenery after a while and may not catch them all for weeks. I'll be looking at a scene closely from a certain angle, and well, what do you know! Hot glue "cobwebs" I missed!
Chip
Building the Rock Ridge Railroad with the slowest construction crew west of the Pecos.
Owner and superintendant of the N scale Texas Colorado & Western Railway, a protolanced representaion of the BNSF from Fort Worth, TX through Wichita Falls TX and into Colorado.
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QUOTE: Originally posted by CNJ831 QUOTE: Originally posted by jfugate You can use basswood or balsa wood for structures and they have reasonably tight grain. But it's pretty well recognized these days in the hobby that styrene makes more realistic models of wood structures in HO and smaller because it holds fine detail very well, better than real wood. While I applaud your efforts in this on-line clinic and recognize your talents as a modeler, I have to take marked exception to your statement above. CNJ831
QUOTE: Originally posted by jfugate You can use basswood or balsa wood for structures and they have reasonably tight grain. But it's pretty well recognized these days in the hobby that styrene makes more realistic models of wood structures in HO and smaller because it holds fine detail very well, better than real wood.
QUOTE: This series is not intended to be an extensive survey of different ways to build model scenery, but is how I build scenery for the Siskiyou Line. I've been building model railroad scenery for nearly 40 years, and I've tried lots of different methods. The methods I'm going to cover work for me because I've found them to be both easy and fast, yet produce "great" looking scenery. These are not necessarily the best methods for everyone, but they work for me!