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My personal “Duh” Moment Journals/Blogs
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Regular poster 499 posts Sugar Beet Guy Regular poster 499 posts
Sugar Beet Guy

This may be nothing new but may be of benefit to beginning  modelers.

I think I experienced the typical learning curve for track ballasting and fastening other scenery material. I spent some frustrating times trying different techniques for applying a 3:1 mixture of white glue and water. Eye droppers, contact lens saline solution bottles, etc.  Most were either too small or clogged easily. I finally settled on 8 oz. “Elmers Glue” bottles with the twist open cap.  The best thing about them was the flow was very controllable from single drops to a decent stream.  I was still frustrated by the lack of wetting even with dish detergent in the mix.  Drops would fall and disturb the nicely arranged ballast or scenery material before eventually soaking in.

Some years ago I read about wetting the materials with alcohol before applying glue.  Magic happened and ballasting became more of a science than an art.  I guess I saw that an eye dropper was used to apply just the right amount of alcohol so that’s how I did it for years.  It was a slow process – do 12-18” of alcohol, apply glue, repeat.  I eventually graduated from an eye dropper to a bigger pipette. Better but still tedious.  

ballast1.jpg 

I needed a new dropper bottle a few months ago and picked one up at a craft store.   A sudden thought hit me (“Ouch”).  I wondered if the glue bottle could also be used for alcohol? It would be a cheap experiment so I bought a second bottle and hurried home to try it out.  “Eureka!”  It Worked perfectly and I could adjust the volume of alcohol to cover a lot of track or scenery very quickly and easily.  Duh, why didn’t I think of that 10 years ago?

ballast2.jpg 

By the way, those plastic bins in the background are empty Safeway 24 oz. soup containers (they also have a 12 oz size).  They are just the right size for holding scenery material and are big enough to get my fat finger into.  I have quite a collection in my scenery cart.  The various soups are pretty darn good, also.

George Booth
Director of Everything, The New Great Western Railway
http://users.frii.com/gbooth/Trains/index.htm
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KFallsBN New member 8 posts
KFallsBN

Great Tip, Timely Too !

Had never heard of using Alcohol when ballasting.  

( Now, if could just find the corkscrew ! )

Wesley

 

On hands and knees, searching for latest dropped detail part(s).
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PeterAtt Regular poster 209 posts
PeterAtt

Great tip

I haven't got to the point of ballads ting yet so it'll be a learning experience too. Thanks for the tip. I had purchased a couple of clear catsup squeeze bottles to do mine, now I can try the alcohol in the second one.
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alco251 Regular poster 128 posts
alco251

Surface tension

It's all about breaking the surface tension of your water/glue mix as it hits the ballast, a couple of drops of washing up liquid added to the water/glue mix does the same trick. As Elmers isn't sold here in the UK I'll have to look at an alternative, I have found that cheap wood glue is a waste of time (even for doing what it's supposed too!) Resin W is the brand of choice here in the UK.
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michaelrose55 Super User 3,458 posts
michaelrose55

I always use alcohol to wet

I always use alcohol to wet the ballast but I also add a little bit of black india ink to it as a first step in weathering.

Michael

The Breitenbach - Rosenheim Railroad V4
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WANDRR Regular poster 362 posts
WANDRR

Adding India Ink to the

Adding India Ink to the alcohol.  Another golden gem!  Thanks Michael.

TJ R.

Mobile, AL (Originally from New Haven, IN)
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oldkmac New member 18 posts
oldkmac

ballast glue

I use a 1 to 1 mixture of water/ alcohol  to my 3 parts glue
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Muskoka Steve Active Member 64 posts
Muskoka Steve

Glue/Alcohol

I use a cheap 50% alcohol solution from the dollar store to first wet the ballast, or scenery ground cover first.

Then use a 50% white glue/50% water and a drop of dish soap mixture to fix it in place.

Best way to apply the solutions is to use contact lense solution bottles.  The ones i use are large and clear.  The nozzle is small, so you can drop the solution on slowly, or if you squeeze hard, you can do a large area quickly.

Steve J.

Steve J

Muskoka Central RR

Cambridge, ON

crossing.jpg 
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martyp New member 5 posts
martyp

ballasting, yuk!

I used to hate ballasting. The joke years ago was; "when it's time for Marty to start ballasting his layout, he moves." My last move brought me to the west coast where I met the guru of ballasting. I had a bunch of guys over to help me (well, I watched) ballast my latest creation. You wouldn't believe the number of different techniques everyone was using. But one technique piqued my interest. I heard what sounded like a hair spray container being used on the other side of the peninsula. I thought, oh no, not hairspray. It turned out to be an Olive Oil Mister used for spraying oil on salad (it's a pump bottle and Home Hardware stores sell them in their housewares dept.). In this case, it contained a 50/50 mix of alcohol and water, and a drop of detergent. Nearby was a 150 ml glue dispenser that contained a 50/50 mix of white glue and water, and that drop of detergent. And the progress this person was making was staggering. I watched his technique in awe for a few minutes, and then moved on, thinking, OK, that actually doesn't look so bad. I'll give it a try - after they've all gone home. That very afternoon, armed with a new Oil Mister, a small glue dispenser that I emptied into a larger bottle, a plastic spoon and a half empty bottle of alcohol and an old make-up brush from my spouses bathroom, I went at it. The next time the guys came over, they couldn't get over how little there was left to do. And they has a hard time believing I had actually ballasted.

The technique: Apply the ballast with the plastic spoon, contour with the make-up brush, 'wet' everything thoroughly with the Oil Mister 50/50 mix (it has a very gentle spray) and then apply the 50/50 glue using the glue bottle with a top that allows adjusting the rate of flow.

Further tips: Stay away from the point rails and throw bar when ballasting around turnouts. Go back later and just paint the exposed area between the ties and around the throw bar with flat black paint. It looks like oil. And each time you're done with the Oil Mister, empty it out and rinse the screw-on cap with water. I found if I didn't do that, the alcohol eventually sped up the decay of the rubber seal inside the cap.

Modeling Trains Around Palmer, MA in HO scale.
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allowe New member 19 posts
allowe

Ballasting

Take your wife to Sally's Beauty Supply (there's got to be one nearby). Let her provide cover while you grab modeling stuff. I use their emery boards for sanding; cheap $1 squeeze bottles for dribbling my alcohol/glue/water mix (1/2/1/); cheap spray bottles for misting ballast with straight, cheap, Costco alcohol; make-up sponges (perfect for touch-ups or weathering or whatever and only 6¢); tiny brushes (in the nail-painting area); and much more.

Oh, and my favorite tip that I can't seem to share enough: before painting track, put a drop of light oil (3-in-1 or ??) on your fingertip and rub it on the railhead (only!). Paint. No Bright Boy needed, just rub off the railheads because paint won't stick to oil!

AL
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