In this episode of The Roundhouse I will be showing the following topics:
Ballasting of Rails/Tracks
Gluing Buildings Down
Applying Grass
Applying Turf over Grass for Effect
Sealing Grass/Turf.
Note: There are many ways you can add scenery to your railroad, that being said just because I am doing things a certain way doesn't mean that is the only way. For as many types of scenery (buildings, plants, grass) there are just as many if not more opinions on how to do it. The goal is to enjoy the process and if doing it a certain way makes you enjoy it more and makes more sense to you, then go for it. Below are the steps I went through in order to add scenery to my layout, and its current progress.
Step 1: Ballast Tracks
The first thing I did was to determine what color and size ballast I wanted on my tracks. I opted for a more neutral tan color with medium texture. That way it wasn't too fine and looked like sand, and wasn't too coarse and looked like boulders.
The above is the ballast which was used. This can be purchased at your local Hobby Lobby.
There are a few ways you can apply the ballast, the more tedious but more realistic way is to spoon it out and use a soft brush to spread as you want, then you would use a pipette to drop the glue (3:1 mixture) in place to seal it. If you are not needing to go to that degree of accuracy you can either purchase a ballast spreader which has a lever to adjust the amount and speed of ballast (I used one of these for most of it) or you can 3D print a spreader (which I had to do at the end because the purchased spreader lever snapped off and became useless). The 3D printed one can be seen in the images below.
When you are applying the ballast you would place this spreader on the rails (it has slots to slide along) and then pour your ballast medium into the top. Then either set the speed of distribution you want or just move it at a speed which gives you the spread you want. Be careful around the switches and turnouts as if you get the ballast in the points it can cause the turnout to not operate properly.
Once you have the ballast spread out the way you want you can take your pipette and glue mixture and spread it around over the ballast (this is the most accurate way and gives a cleaner effect I have learned). However, what I did was once the ballast was spread I applied the spray model glue (see image below) over the tracks and ballast to hold it in place. Then when it dried took a soft brush and brushed away the excess and then did spot fills with a spoon and the pipette.
When it is to your liking you can move onto other features of the scenery. These are a few examples of what mine looked like once it was ballasted.
When you are done I would recommend taking one of your locomotives and having it do a lap around the layout and identifying any areas which the glue may have interrupted the circuit then spot sanding that gently with a fine grade paper (I used 150 grit) being sure not to damage the rails.
Step 2: Securing Buildings / Planning Landscape
The next step taken was to layout on the table where I wanted my buildings to be glued in place, as well where I will want grass only, and where I will want a mixture of grass and turf. To do this the buildings were placed where they were wanted to go, and the outlines were traced with a sharpie. I then used a silicone adhesive to glue the buildings in place. Put a small bead around the perimeter of the buildings and gently press into place.
Note: Do not use general model glue (such as below) on foam, it gets hot and will leave you with large holes as it dries.
Once the buildings were in place and the areas were marked with G for (grass only) or G+T (for grass and turf mixture) it was time to add the grass.
Step 3: Adding Grass / Turf
When adding anything to large areas work in small areas at a time so the glue you apply doesn't dry before you get to the next area.
When you are ready take a plastic cup and paint brush. Mix in 3 parts water to 1 part thick model glue (the glue I used can be seen in the image below). Mix it thoroughly with the brush until its a consistent milky color. Spread the glue mixture over the foam board being sure to not be too stingy with it as some may get soaked into the foam.
Once the area has glue applied take your grass as the base and carefully go around the edges of the ballasted track and edges of the area of the glue zone. Being sure not to cover up the track and all your hard work you did on the ballasting. Take the grass bottle (see below for grass mixture I used) and sprinkle it all around to the coverage you want, I went around until the brown paint of the foam board wasn't showing anymore. Repeat this process until you have covered all the areas you want on the layout. See below for some examples of my layout after this step.
Once the area is grassed then I took the spray model glue I used on the ballast and gently misted the area to wet the grass. If turf was to be added it was then sprinkled over top the damp grass to get the look I wanted. Once that sat for a short time I misted it again to solidify the turf over the grass.
Once the entire layout was grassed and turfed to my desire I took the spray glue and misted the layout to give it one final coat to keep things in place.
The final thing to do prior to running trains at full speed is to do one last test pass with my trains slowly to ensure that there are not any dead or short spots on the track from the scenery and then take the fine sand paper and a sharp razor blade if needed to cut reliefs into the ballast for the wheels.
Below is a gallery of what the layout looks like after all this work.
That is all for this episode of The Roundhouse. I hope it was interesting, if there are any details or steps you would want more information on, please feel free to head on over to the Contact section of the site and shoot me a message. I will be sure to respond as quickly as I can.
The next few updates coming up will be some overviews of the layouts and specifics around some of the buildings, rolling stock, locomotives, etc.
Until next time!
All Aboard!
- Matt
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