01-28-2011, 11:57 AM
My preference is to ballast first, then handpaint the track with craft paint. No scientific reasons for this, but I don't want to spray in my train room, and seems when I painted the track first, the ballasting process made the paint darker. I also handpaint all the ties after the ballast is down, using various shades of grays and then do a black wash over them. Sounds tedious, but as DocWayne has mentioned before, it is rather relaxing, with no need to get in a rush, spend 20 or 30 minutes every now and then, before you know it, the whole room is done.