With ballasting complete, next I turned to the sides of the track. I use neat Railmatch ‘Sleeper Grime’ for this task. This is a very time-consuming job but I prefer  brush painting as opposed to air brushing simply because of control ability and keeping paint away from places I do not want it! The Air Brush will come out for final blending and weathering with at least four colours including at least one dark Gloss colour for oil stains.

After completing both boards I started to put a wash on the ballast – this is again done with ‘Sleeper Grime’ but mixed 50-50 with thinners. This gets into every little crevice and starts to bring the layout to life. Again I prefer brush painting, but a larger brush can be used so its a quicker process.

It is essential to keep the track tops clean after each stage. I clean down with thinners and a ‘Track Rubber’. I am not a big fan of track rubbers, mainly because of the ‘debris’ they produce. However at this stage it is not important as I vacuum the layout between stages.

Sides Only

 

Sides and Wash

 

Painting the chairs