Steel Mill Module 3 redesign - Part 5

Once the track has been painted and dried, I began ballasting the track. When I start my scenery I always start with the track ballast. I prefer using "Highball" ballast material, it is made from real crushed stone. There are other manufactures that us real stone as well which should work the same. Woodland Scenics uses crushed walnut shells (or a different nut) for their ballast which tends to float if you put down a healthy amount of glue. With the amount of time you spend spreading the ballast around you don't want it to move. You'll notice that I used lime stone colored ballast for the mainlines and blended them into the original colored ballast. If you have any books on your favorite railroad look at the ballast in the pictures. I used cinder colored ballast for the rest of the track along with real dirt. Next I put down a small line of real dirt next to the ballast. Once that is done, then I begin my gluing process (see note).

Note: I uses a 50/50 mix of white glue and water for gluing down the ballast. I first soak the area with a water/detergent mixture (3 drops of dishsoap/1 pint of water, this acts as a wetting agent), using a spray bottle. I usually do this twice before adding my glue which is applied using a small plastic bottle with a dropper attachment. Those of you who's wifes color their own hair, that little bottle that has the hair color in it is perfect, that's what use.

While the area is still wet I start putting down the scenery material. I use Woodland Scenics "Fine" green or earth blends for the base colors. Again while the area is still wet I'll put down any other basic scenery stuff that I want in that location. While your adding this material you are going the have to keep the area wet with water and glue mixtures. This assures that you will get a good foundation to start with.

In the pictures you can see where I added ballast in random areas along with small pieces of wrapping paper to represent paper trash along the rightaway. My technique allowed me to complete the basic scenery in this whole area in less than an hour and a half. It takes practice, don't get discouraged. In my next post I will begin putting in detail parts along with more scenery.

Steel Mill Module 3 Redesign - Part 4

Hello all. I know it's been awhile but I got off on a new tangent with passenger trains. Looking at building a few modules with that theme in mind.

I finely got around to a finalized track arrangement. Once the track was installed and new power leads soldered on I began preparing to paint the track. I've learned a couple of new techniques for painting track, but decided to keep with what I already had.

It's pretty simple, I used Floquil "Rail Brown" for the base coat. When I'm airbrushing I aim at the sides of the rail not worrying about the over-spray. That tends to get on the ties to a degree which is OK for me at this point. Then I will paint random ties with either Floquil "Concrete or SP Lettering Gray". I airbrush these as well for the sake of time, then I go back with a brush to touch up the rails from the over-spray. This is usually just a small area around the single ties. I paint the single ties to simulate ties that have been around for a long time and that didn't get as much creasote absorption as others. Make sure that you get the ends of the ties as well, you never know if your going to completely get the ballast around the ties even.

One of the last things I do is lightly over spray all of the track using Floquil "Mud", this tends to bring the detail out and blends everything together. The last thing I do is then spray all of the track again with an enexpensive flat (spray can) paint, this is to take the shine off of the plastic ties.

One other thing that I do from time to time is to go back and paint a single tie here and there "Black" to represent a brand new tie. I also will put down fresh ballast around those ties to help pull-off the look of a recently replaced tie. I plan to do that inone or two spots in this track work. Look for the next posts.