Selector
Well-Known Member
The idea is to adhere the ballast grains in place to prevent the tracks there from changing geometry, but also to keep the grains from migrating off the rails due to the passage overhead of rolling stock. The rails will vibrate, even in that scale, and over time the nice groomed ballast will look a mess. So, you need much more than an air brush can deliver unless you're prepared to spend hours doing this....hours upon hours. Hence, you groom the bllast, dribble 70% drug store strength isopropyl alcohol into it until you know it's penetrated mostly (some say to let it run out the bottom of the ballast. It's not going to do you or your wallet any good there.) and when it is done, you then dribble a solution of diluted white or yellow glue to which a couple of drops of liquid dish detergent have been added. Again, you only need to soak the top 1/4" or so to form a hard shell, thus encapsulating the looser grains under it. You can harden the entire depth, but I have found it to be unnecessary.Just reading along with this thread, as I am nowhere near the ballasting stage, but I have an extreme noob question about glueing the ballast. Delute the glue, but then you spray it over the spread out ballast using your air brush?
Or is the process more or less using an old glue type bottle?
Work on about three feet of the groomed ballast at a time. Wet it, then glue it, wipe the rail tops very carefully so as not to disturb the ballast grains, and then move on to another three feet of ballast. Doing to much track at a time runs the risk of hardened glue left atop the rails where it will interfere with electrical contact.