Best ways to change ballast colour

[RobertInOntario]

I've just started tinkering with a small layout. I'm almost done laying the track (I have to tweak it a bit).

I realize that I should change the colour of my ballast to suit the prototype. I believe ballast colour of the area that I'm modeling (the Somerset & Dorset Line in SW England) was a brown/pink. Before I start ballasting, I thought I should try to change the colour of my ballast and was wondering what was the best way for doing this.

I currently have some Woodland Scenics grey ballast. It works well but, after applied, appears far too clean and white-ish for a steam-era railway. Should I mix ballast of another colour with this?

Thanks,
Rob

[Trucklover]

Hi Rob, sometimes i mix different ballest colors together to highlight a bit. I usually dont add to much of the different color to the mix, but if you really want to change the color, use more of the new color and less of the old color....

[Green_Elite_Cab]

Well there is a couple ways to do this. I know some companies that actually bust down the actual prototype ballast to be scale size, but these are eastern american railroad ballast. There may be such a company for your railroad available.

If you just want to kill the bright gray look, there are a bunch of ways to do it. Firstly, the starkness does go away, eventually dust and that dulls it. As far as adding the right colors, just think about what would fall from your locomotives and cars? Grease, oil, coal, grime, its all going to end up on the rails (and the ties/cross pieces).

So the first thing i would do is dilute some grimy black paint. Start off really thin, you don't want to over do it, because you'll have to rip the ballast out if you mess up. Just brush it all over, and clean the railheads. That should kill most of the bright grey appreance of the ballast, as well as weather the rest of tracks.

then examine what parts of the railroad we are looking at. the center between the rails usually are more heavily weathered, since thats where most of the oil tends to drip from, no matter what era it is. You might want to brus on some heavier (but still very diluted) coats of grimy paint. It should be faint over most of the mainline. If a locomotive is to be parked in an area for an extended period of time, then it is alright to add darker weathering.

Just use prototype pictures if you can to see what it looks like, and just try to tint it that way with diluted paints until you get what you need.

[Tom]

I had that problem once before, and found that the best way (cheapest, easiest and less messy) to do this was to simply wait until the glue had fully dried and then go back later with a dry medium bristle toothbrush and scrub in the direction of the track. I scrub between the rails and then do the sides. Something in the ballast comes up and weathers it REALLY nicely. I tehn clean the rails really god and call it done. It'll definitely darken your ballast and weather it and doesn't cost anything (unless you have to go purchase a new toothbrush, and what does an cheap toothbrush cost anyway, $3, $4 bucks?). Minimal amount of work too, you really don't have to scrub too hard or too much to accomplish the results you want.

[RobertInOntario]

Thanks for these suggestions -- I'll have a closer look at them tonight!

Rob

[jglfan]

I often use Woodland Scenics light grey ballast. It is too uniform for my taste (I think any given color ballast would be) Rather than mix multiple colors of ballast, which can look kind of salt and pepperish, I add color (usually black, but you may want to see what could get you closer to your brown/pink) to the alcohol I wet the applied ballast with in preparation of glueing. I consider it weathering. In order to avoid possible confusion, my method of fastening ballast to the tracks is to put in in place using a teaspoon, fingers and a small brush. I then soak it with alcohol sprayed in a very fine mist. Then I use diluted white glue (somwhere in the area of 50/50) dribbled on. I use an empty glue bottle, put the 50/50 mix in it, shake well, open the twist top and just let it drip/pour out.

[upnick]

Hi Rob,

I use woodland scenics ballast ....... after the glue has gone off it recieves washes of usually very thin black (more thinners than paint) in your case i would get a piece of spare track attach it to a board and experiment with ballast applied and different coloured washes, for the pinky ballast try humbrol #73 very much thinned down to the consitency of milk over the grey ballast if its too much paint keep applying thinners till your happy with the shade.

I have used thinned green to give a moss effect.

[nachoman]

I'm not a big fan of WS ballast straight out of the bag. It is too uniform in color and size to suit my taste. My recommendation is to buy the most obvious color of the ballast you are trying to replicate. For example, if the ballast on your prototype looks like medium gray(overall), buy medium gray. Then, buy a bag of the next smaller size, of the next darker color, and blend to a proportion that looks best to you. For example, a suitable blend may be a full bag of medium sized medium gray, with half a bag of fine dark gray. That would look significantly better than a bag of medium gray alone.

In the real world, ballast should be rarely uniform color. The reasons:
1) real railroads may change the source of their ballast over the years. They rarely scrape up the old ballast - usually they just add more and this causes variety over the years.
2) rocks weather over time. Oil and chemicals leaking from the trains. Dirt, and dust settling on it. Chemical alteration of the rocks by sunlight, water, and air exposure.
3) even ballast from the same source rock has variation. Rock masses are seldom homogeneous in color.
4) The individual grains of ballast may show different shades because of how they are oriented and reflect light (shadow effect). these shadow effects seem to be less pronounced in smaller scales and under artificial light, so sometimes we have to exaggerate things.

[RobertInOntario]

Hi Rob, sometimes i mix different ballest colors together to highlight a bit. I usually dont add to much of the different color to the mix, but if you really want to change the color, use more of the new color and less of the old color....

This makes sense to me. It sounds like a practical and easy way to change this colour. I'll see what other colours I can get in the WS and other ranges. Thanks, Rob

[Trucklover]

Arizona Rock and Minerals makes some GREAT colors in Ballast and would make for some nice mixs. Ill be using there products to ballast all my M&ET modules

[RobertInOntario]

Arizona Rock and Minerals makes some GREAT colors in Ballast and would make for some nice mixs. Ill be using there products to ballast all my M&ET modules

Do you know if those products readily available in most LHS's? I could check with a couple of mine. Rob

[RobertInOntario]

I'm not a big fan of WS ballast straight out of the bag. It is too uniform in color and size to suit my taste. My recommendation is to buy the most obvious color of the ballast you are trying to replicate. For example, if the ballast on your prototype looks like medium gray(overall), buy medium gray. Then, buy a bag of the next smaller size, of the next darker color, and blend to a proportion that looks best to you. For example, a suitable blend may be a full bag of medium sized medium gray, with half a bag of fine dark gray. That would look significantly better than a bag of medium gray alone.

In the real world, ballast should be rarely uniform color. The reasons:
1) real railroads may change the source of their ballast over the years. They rarely scrape up the old ballast - usually they just add more and this causes variety over the years.
2) rocks weather over time. Oil and chemicals leaking from the trains. Dirt, and dust settling on it. Chemical alteration of the rocks by sunlight, water, and air exposure.
3) even ballast from the same source rock has variation. Rock masses are seldom homogeneous in color.
4) The individual grains of ballast may show different shades because of how they are oriented and reflect light (shadow effect). these shadow effects seem to be less pronounced in smaller scales and under artificial light, so sometimes we have to exaggerate things.

Thanks ... Good points & observations, especially that WS ballast is too uniform in colour and size. I'll give this some thought as well -- mixing the different colours and sizes. Rob

[Trucklover]

Arizona Rock and Minerals makes some GREAT colors in Ballast and would make for some nice mixs. Ill be using there products to ballast all my M&ET modules

Do you know if those products readily available in most LHS's? I could check with a couple of mine. Rob

I dont know if there readily available at most hobby shops, 2 out of the 3 near me carry them carry them i believe, i was just going to order directly from them, but you might ask your LHS if they can order it for you if they dont stock it already

[RobertInOntario]

[/quote]I dont know if there readily available at most hobby shops, 2 out of the 3 near me carry them carry them i believe, i was just going to order directly from them, but you might ask your LHS if they can order it for you if they dont stock it already [/quote]


Thanks! I'll check with mine then. Rob