The sleepered track needs to be weathered. I made up my own mix of 'sleeper grime' from brown and black enamel paint. The rails were masked with drinking straws slit down the length. The lot was then sprayed with Halfords grey primer followed by brushing over the sleeper grime when the primer had dried. (could not spray because my air brush broke).
The rail sides and chairs were next brush painted with my own mix of 'rusty rails' using red oxide and brown enamel paint.
The sleepers with integral chairs are 3D printed in blocks of four sleepers.
The ballast proved tricky to hold firmly in place. I first sprayed it
using 50/50 PVA mix (with a drop of washing liquid to release surface
tension) and left it to dry overnight. In the morning the granules were dry
but had not set. I then increased the mix to 70/30 and dribbled it over
using a children medicine syringe. Next day the ballast had
still not set firm. Reasons why this may not have worked are the porosity of the pumice or the depth of ballast (3mm). In both
cases much more glue mix may be necessary. The final method that worked
was to dribble over 50/50 white tacky glue. This gave the solid
fix needed.
I am pleased with the ballast colour. Further weathering could be applied to darken it between sleepers to represent muck dropped by passing locomotives.
Grass is to be 'grown' right up to the ballast. I should have prepared the ground before ballasting with a covering of green paint. I'll just have to be careful to stop the paint leeching into the ballast.
To Part 9.
To Part 1.
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