East Norwood, OH in Z Scale

[Jesse6669]

Adventures in 1:220 limestone gravel..

I mixed up a batch of sanded grout with grays and a little brown and applied it.  To the naked eye it looks ok.  To the camera, it looks more lumpy and not consolidated, and also shows "crystals", ie the facets on the sand. 



I thought about what makes the real limestone crushed rock pack down better--more fines.  Gray weathering pigment is fine.. so I went over the whole area with a dose of gray pigment and rubbed it in a bit.  This yields a good look, I think.  It fills in space in the rock like fines, and also tones down the sparkles. 

I added some scenic cement to a section to see what it did, and sprayed the other half with matte clear--both darkened the pigments.  The section with pigment alone looks best and is permanent enough (I'll see how it looks after the cement and clear has fully dried);  In any case, I tested the pigment alone section with a vacuum and it stayed in place.

[robert3985]

If you're particular about how your ballast looks, both texture and color, from hard experience, I would make sure I ballasted a small test piece of track before settling on either a texture or color.

In my experience on customer's layouts/modules ofttimes the dry color/texture doesn't even come close to what the ballast looks like after it's been glued down and allowed to dry using the normal soaking with ballast glue method.

Also, the shiny rock surfaces will be less if your adhesive you mix with water is matte.  I find that Mod-Podge Matte works very well without gloss (like white glue) and without white deposits (like artist's Matte Medium sometimes does).

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

[Chris333]

Back in my Z scale days  :trollface

I bought a micron filter screen to sift ballast to about 2 z scale inches.

[Jesse6669]

If you're particular about how your ballast looks, both texture and color, from hard experience, I would make sure I ballasted a small test piece of track before settling on either a texture or color.

In my experience on customer's layouts/modules ofttimes the dry color/texture doesn't even come close to what the ballast looks like after it's been glued down and allowed to dry using the normal soaking with ballast glue method.

Also, the shiny rock surfaces will be less if your adhesive you mix with water is matte.  I find that Mod-Podge Matte works very well without gloss (like white glue) and without white deposits (like artist's Matte Medium sometimes does).

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

Yep Bob, that's exactly what this is--a bit of ballasted test track.   Clearly there's a color change visible on the ballast and this section of "crushed stone" when either adhesive (WS scenic cement) or matte spray (dullcote) is applied.  Dried, they don't look much different than wet (see below).

Chris, I screen N scale ballast to get both the fines and too-large chunks out.  The dust from the 100-mesh could probably be used here, but was pitched when I made my batches for the layout.  The weathering powder seems to do the job though.  I'm pretty happy with this look, plus it'll get some additional weathering:
 

[Jesse6669]

McCullough Yard is ballasted.  I made "place holders" for the sand tower and it's support. 



We shall see how the fine rock ends up looking when dry, then add the weathering powder (Bragdon Ent. "ash" btw) if needed.



The backdrop will be next.  And I should also be able to "JRTFM" once I give the track a decent cleaning!     

[Jesse6669]

And voila, with some Bragdon weathering powders I think it turned out ok--not too grainy, matte, and clearly smoother/compacted rock vs. ballast: 

[Jesse6669]

The remaining backdrops have been installed and structures placed where they'll be.  All the structures can be removed for additional updates or weathering--or just to make working on the area around them easier.

First, here's an aerial from Google Maps of the prototype area modeled.  Obviously a lot of compression was employed, but I'm just trying to give the overall impression.


Going west-to-east: here's Highland Ave crossing.  The small structure will represent Queen City Clay or maybe Motor Boat Storage (?)-- I could 3D print some boats and put in the warehouse which would be a bit more interesting than a clay warehouse;  The larger structure on the left is the Rumpke/Dalton Adding Machine building done from an Archistories kit.  I'm planning to install working flashers on the crossing and there'll be a squealer on the sharp curve west of the crossing.


Here's an overview of McCullough Yard with the engine facility and sand tower all ballasted with backdrop.  I cheated a bit in photo software to hide seams in the sky which I hope to do in real life with some putty and airbrushing or chalks. 


A close up of the yard throat.  I really like how the ballast vs gravel road textures worked out.


On the east end of the yard, there's a mirror on the backdrop to give the impression of depth.  Ignore the giant iPhone!   

[Jesse6669]

I took a crack at making the Motor Boat Garage (a real business there on Highland Ave).  The structure was a leftover ancillary building from the Archistories engine house kit that I didn't want to include--so it goes to good use.  The signage came from their website, printed on presentation paper.  The boat is a 3D printed Chris Craft Coho, wrapped to look like it's shrink-wrapped in storage using teflon tape.  I might take another crack at it, teflon tape is tough to work with but I think it looks ok for a first pass.  (I'm gonna get a roll of 1" teflon tape and try that..the stuff I was using was 1/2").  Some cribbing will be put under it.  Maybe I will do some other boats the same way. 



Gonna have to get MOW to clear up those overgrown weeds on the yard lead!