oldrk It worked for the intended purpose for the boy. Good idea. Q- Does the product have small particles in it or is it just mottled paint. The reason I ask is if it has small particiles to make the stone effect, it should cause an uneven surface for the wheels to go over.
One final note- I'd be much more concerned with cleaning the rails and turnout points than anything else. Otherwise, as mentioned, it is what it is. Thanks for sharing, oldrk!
I was worried about the wheels also. I had to clean a crossover and the railheads but beside that it hasnt been a problem. I ran a small train over it for a half hour or so after it dried with no problem. Ill let you know how the boy likes it.
From the "for what it's worth" department: Model Railroader showed a (relatively) cheap and (reasonably) quick n-scale layout some years ago that used a similar product called "fleckstone" spray paint (if memory serves correctly) to imitate stone ballast quickly. I believe the person who constructed that layout may have sprayed it on Unitrack. For a kid's layout, to create differentiation between track and everything else, this method works, especially when not under the harsh eye of a camera.
I did my whole 1st layout with this stuff, but I did not do the ballast. I dries hard and is hard to get up, so I masked all the track 1st. Oh, I tried to spray just a little spot that I missed inside the house and the smell was so bad that I had to open all the windows and turn on a fan. :tb-wacky:
I have used Fleckstone or similar paints for areas that extend down to floor and on curtains to cover the benchwork The center of the image and to the right have Fleckstone The canyon walls to the floor have Fleckstone. I find that using about three different shades or colors work better than just one.
I am experimenting using flexstone as a base on my cork before laying track, with the premise that it will keep me from having to use as much ballast to cover. I think at the end of the day it won't be any cheaper, but since AR&M "may or may not" be out business I need to be as conservative with my application of ballast as I can. I'm still not convinced one way or the other about whether I think it's a good idea...still have some work to do to find out. I did use it on my staging/hidden trackage roadbed just to give it a little bit of a finished look knowing that I will not be ballasting it. For that, I think it's a decent idea, although probably not something most people would bother with. (I'm a little ashamed to admit it, but the reason I originally did this was I was still pondering staying in the NMRA and getting the layout AP thingy which requires specific amounts of "finished" layout square footage. I know, I know...) I agree, I don't think the speckle paint on the ties looks good at all. But, you should have been able to wipe the ties off immediately after application, which would have likely been 1000% improvement, IMHO. Here is a pic of my staging yard, FWIW...
I agree- that looks much better. You could almost leave it that way. Doug- you said you use AR&M ballast. How's that stand up against the WS product, and how much does a bag of the AR&M stuff cost (take into consideration I'm now 230 miles from Discount Trains instead of 55 or so.........)?
Well, to me it stands up as being a little finer, but more importantly (a) easier to work with and (b) available in a greater selection of colors. Price-wise, I don't recall...I am pretty sure the AR&M stuff is more expensive but the specifics escape me. I hear that AR&M is no longer making N-scale ballast but that rumor has been flying for a while and I still see it around. Discount usually has quite a bit, but not necessarily all the colors AR&M has offered so maybe they are dwindling down on their stock, who knows. I have a pretty good stock of it but I want it for "Denver Road II" eventually so I'm trying to get creative.
Looks great oldrk.I did catch that this was built for a child,who will enjoy countless hours running trains and not giving a rip about overspray on the ties.I applaud your sharing this tip with us and sharing our hobby with young people.As they say in Arkansas "It's your duck,pluck it any way you want!"
Interesting..Maybe spraying it on cork roadbed would work? After all I painted some cork roadbed once dark gray and it looked fairly decent.
I'm going to try this, painting the road bed first, perhaps toning it down with a light blast of grimy black to reduce the contrast somewhat, then lay the track. Might work for the yard too, since a cinder color is grayish black, one could then add ballast at a later date to reduce the uniformity. R
It looks good on cork. When I masked off the rails, I didn't get all the cork covered so most of the cork was painted. It looked so good that I decided I would spray my next roadbed before I layed down the track I bought my 1st can at Home Depot for around $6. They next day I was at Wal-Mart looking for something else and they had a clearance sale, so I bought about 5 cans of mixed colors for a buck apiece. Not only did they come in different colors but I also got different textures. I did end up with several brands and I don’t remember what they were, but I liked it so much that I went back for more and they were gone.
Hi Gats, :shade: Do you know were this paint is available in Australia? I'm impressed with the end result for much less effort. (nice work oldrk) Everyone wins! I feel that this method could also be applied to points/switches were ballast is in less volume. This could be blended in nicely with true ballast and look great.
Seems to me after careful reading of the post that he was doing something nice for a child. Why all the controversy??? To each his own...........mine does not have to be yours & vice versa.
I've used this product on the final 2 1/2" of roadbed on each end of an Ntrak module. I've found colors to approximate the ballast color.
