Cwmbach: Ballast weathering…
With the ‘lights on’ over Cwmbach in recent weeks I’ve recognised I would need to do something about the fresh grey ballast vs the cinder ballast used in the sidings. Procrastination set in - I dislike weathering ballast and certainly not the airbrush - but the need for some gentle modelling to occupy a busy mind over the weekend resulted in this…
It is done. It wasn’t as hard as I feared (how often do we as modellers finding ourselves uttering those words). It looks good and I’m released to the next procrastination road block!
I didn’t want a uniform appearance, and I don’t like the way airbrushed ‘dirt’ sits only on part of the ballast. I couldn’t use water based washes as they ran the risk of reactivating the scenic cement (and gumming up my turnouts all over again!). In the end it was my old friends, 33 and 98 plus liberal quantities of white spirit that created the soft edges and modulated effect I wanted.
The weathering isn’t over yet, but it ‘finished’ enough to move on to the scenery. I am still, even now, finding my feet with N scale work. Modulation of texture as well as colour, and I’m already thinking ahead to ground textures to run up alongside this yard area - but the scenic foundations are my next challenge as I’m not sure I have any suitable materials in stock - nor any electrical equipment with its polystyrene packing being delivered!
In the meantime, track testing continues. More soon…
Support my work
I love writing and creating material for the blog. If you enjoy what you read and engage with I would be appreciative of any donation, large or small, to help me keep it advert and restriction free. Alternatively, feel free to buy me a coffee, where regular memberships start from just £1.
Morning James,
ReplyDeleteGood to see more progress on Cwmbach, the ballasting looks good! I find real soil good for ground texture in the wider scenery, dried and seived through a tea strainer it can be really effective. I lighten the colour with chinchilla dust if it looks too dark. I think Lou Sassi or Dave Frary wrote about using soil/dirt on model railways in one of their scenery books published by Kalmbach. The coal dust residue must be really difficult to model as presumably you need a very dark grey rather than flat black to not look too intense. Have a good week. Take care.
Thanks Tom. I'm not so worried about the ground cover, more the land forms themselves. I would love to have some expanded polystyrene off cuts to use as a lightweight and stable foundation - alas, I don't have any... I will mull over my options. I've used all sorts over the years. Pont Dulas and Boston Lodge used card and screwed up paper under a woven paper surfaces and then mod-roc and filler to smooth... but the problem is when you push in trees there is nothing to hold them in place!
Delete