I just switched on you

[tom mann]

I'm back to using WS ballast.  It looks more like real rock up close, and it's slightly oversized look creates more texture, which looks better in photos.  My latest module uses it instead of highball.

Carry on...

[SLR 393]

I use both.  But I have a layout.   

[wm3798]

HAH!  I've been using it all along, although I find that if I blend it with some fine grey craft sand (available at Michaels, AC Moore and other fine stores) I get a more pleasing result.

Of course, on your Z scale work, you can use the WS material for rip-rap!

Lee

[Iain]

I use fine blasting sand, I think it's Magnesium Oxide.  Anyway, it has a dark  rusty-brown colour and is VERY fine, almost too fine for N scale.  It would probably be almost perfect for Z, however.


I have learned that drybrushing it with other colours and hitting with dullcoat will give very nice results, better than what is seen above.

[pnolan48]

I used WS ballast almost exclusively. It looks fine to me and, after working with it for a while, I had no real problems. I have also used dirt from the back yard. It's decomposed granite here in the foothills of Albuquerque. Rather earthy color, but dries into concrete. Maybe that's why we use it for adobes.

[umtrr-author]

WS Ballast has largely been relegated to the kids HO layout now that I have a suitable stash of Arizona Rock and Mineral ballast. 

I enjoyed sending 12+ pounds of the stuff coast to coast in a Postal Service flat rate box for $8.10.  Regular Priority Mail would have been a lot more...

[Ian MacMillan]

I'm a real rock guy

[Sokramiketes]

I'm back to using WS ballast.  It looks more like real rock up close, and it's slightly oversized look creates more texture, which looks better in photos.  My latest module uses it instead of highball.

Carry on...

This thread is useless without pics.

[tom mann]

I'm back to using WS ballast.  It looks more like real rock up close, and it's slightly oversized look creates more texture, which looks better in photos.  My latest module uses it instead of highball.

Carry on...

This thread is useless without pics.

[Mark5]

I'm a rocker, but whatever "floats" your boat ... 

[Sokramiketes]

Too coarse.  If you like it that much though, maybe you can pull a Chris333 and screen it to remove the biggest chunks?

[asciibaron]

Too coarse.

i was thinking the same tihing - that ballast looks fist sized, much larger than normal.  the scene looks great, the ballast size isn't that obvious, but some look to be the same size as the truck springs....

[wm3798]

I think he's hit the nail on the head.  Ballast is a very coarse run of crushed stone, not silt.  The WS material has a good color and texture, and to my eye provides a more realistic finish than some of the finer-grain materials out there.

Go walk down a railroad track, and you'll be surprised how many chunks of rock are as big as your hand.

Lee

[Mark5]

What I'm used to:




http://imagebase.lib.vt.edu/index.php


http://www.krunk.org/~joeshaw

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Thats an interesting point, it DOES look like there are different sized ballasts in use...

That makes it all SO much easier...  :