This morning I snuck into the garage, and started to place ballast onto the track. Keeping with the MRH $500 challenge, I am using a 35mm film canister to pour the ballast, the same paintbrush that I used to paint my girl’s bedroom to spread the ballast, another brush for the finer detailing. It took forever to get the Woodland Scenics gray ballast that I have had for years to look like a real roadbed.
As soon as I got it nice, I followed advice from two Model Railroader articles. I took an empty water bottle, and I filled it with a mixture (2:1) of water and 91% rubbing alcohol and mixed a 1:1 mixture of water and white glue. I punched a few holes in the lid of the water bottle, dribbled the “wet water”, and I watched the ballast float and move around. I discovered that the ballast now clumps up. I now really wish that I went with a different ballast.
I’ll post pictures after vacuuming up the extra ballast soon…