# First attempt at Ballasting (and some scenery)



## yurbuddychris (Feb 25, 2011)

Well, it's been about 16 years since I've messed with this stuff, but I really want to get back into it. I was 8 yrs old last time, so this time will probably be a bit different. Especially since I'll be doing most of it myself. (My Dad helped significantly when I was young).

So, since I haven't put a layout together yet, I thought I'd start practicing ballasting and scenery. Here are some pictures of what I've done so far. Please feel free to be critical, I'm posting on here so I can get better and I'm looking forward to hearing from all of yall!

I apologize ahead of time for the poor picture quality, hopefully you can still get a good idea of my work from these!


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## concretepumper (Jan 2, 2011)

Welcome to the forum! Looks good to me! Did you glue it? I have yet to try. I suppose a small Dio. is good practice to see what works for ya'! Hmmmm...........


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## shaygetz (Sep 23, 2007)

Looks good...my only suggestion would be to profile it a bit narrower, that'll comes with practice.:thumbsup:


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## gc53dfgc (Apr 13, 2010)

shaygetz said:


> Looks good...my only suggestion would be to profile it a bit narrower, that'll comes with practice.:thumbsup:


Looking good and makeing it a little narrower would be more realistic but not much narrower if you don't want to.

I have seen single track mains with a good bit of ballast off to the side of the track before almost like yours.


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## yurbuddychris (Feb 25, 2011)

concretepumper said:


> Welcome to the forum! Looks good to me! Did you glue it? I have yet to try. I suppose a small Dio. is good practice to see what works for ya'! Hmmmm...........


I did glue it. Sprayed it down and then applied the glue mix. Strength wise I think it turned out pretty good. I'm pleased with the looks for my first try, but it's certainly got some flaws!


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## yurbuddychris (Feb 25, 2011)

gc53dfgc said:


> Looking good and makeing it a little narrower would be more realistic but not much narrower if you don't want to.
> 
> I have seen single track mains with a good bit of ballast off to the side of the track before almost like yours.



I would have really like to narrow it like yall have said. I'll certainly be practicing more. Right now matching what's in my head and then applying it is my biggest challenge. While I'm working on acquiring some space for a layout I intend to work on my scenery and ballasting skills until then. I might try another stand like this one, but try narrowing it up a bit. Thanks for the suggestions!


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## jzrouterman (Nov 27, 2010)

I think for the first try, you did very, very well. I'm terrible at laying ballast, always have been. At least yours is where it should be, as when I do it, I seem to get it everywhere but where I should. I saw an add the other day for a ballast spreader, and I'm thinking about trying it. They say it makes spreading ballast easier and the results being almost perfect. I don't know. I've never tried it. But then it probably couldn't be any worse than what I'm already doing, lol. Anyway, here's the linc to it. Maybe it's something that you or anyone else here might be interested in.

http://www.micromark.com/HO-Gauge-Ballast-Spreader,9535.html

JZ


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## yurbuddychris (Feb 25, 2011)

Thanks for the kind words jz! I'm certainly in no position to give advice, since I'm very inexperienced with this kind of thing. But, I'm sure it's one of those things where you get better and better with practice. In order to keep the ballast from going all over the place, I cut the top off of a bottled water and filled it with ballast. Since the plastic is real flimsy, it helped control where the ballast went. Then I just blew away the ballast from the places I didn't want it. As you can see in my pictures, it's still kind of messy, but hopefully I can improve that with practice. Good luck!


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## tankist (Jun 11, 2009)

can't tell from the picture, is your track already weathered? its a good idea to weather the track BEFORE you lay ballast. in my first test piece like yours i ended up painting rails and ties with brush, i'll be damned if i ever do that again.


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## yurbuddychris (Feb 25, 2011)

tankist said:


> can't tell from the picture, is your track already weathered? its a good idea to weather the track BEFORE you lay ballast. in my first test piece like yours i ended up painting rails and ties with brush, i'll be damned if i ever do that again.


I painted the tracks before ballasting, but you can't really tell, even up close. It didn't turn out great. I painted the rails a mixture of a few paints but mostly Rail Brown, and the rest Roof Brown.

I used enamel, should I have used acrylic? I could really use some advise in that area.


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## yurbuddychris (Feb 25, 2011)




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