which ballast - unitrack

I agree with the request - can we see some pictures of this please - pretty please?

Tim

 

Hi Mark,

your unitrack looks awesome! What kind of ballast and paint did you use and method of applying it all?
getting ready to ballast mine. would love to get mine to look as good!

td

 

Woodland Scenics packaged a special blend matching Unitrack for Kato. I don't know if is currently available in North America. Probably would be more economical to decide what colors in the roadbed you want to match and blend your own from readily available stock WS ballasts
Charlie Vlk

 

Here is some darkened Kato ballast on the ACTRR.





Mike

 

I like the toned down look of the Kato ballast Mike. I would also like to add a hint of rust brown to the mix to match the look of the Chicagoland area I am modeling. What did you use to darken the ballast and what would you recommend to add a hint of rust brown?

Jerry

 

Thanks Jerry , I just used a wash of very thinned craft acrylic black and would likely do the same over the top of the dried black with a craft paint rust color. I have not tried it but it should work.

Mike

 

You can go to my Santa Fe Peavine Line layout web site and see a longer version of how I ballasted my Kato Unitrack:

http://home.comcast.net/~j.sing/Peavine_Layout_Overview.html

Scroll down about 1/2 way, to " Kato Unitrack: Painted, then ballasted ", and you'll see documentation on how I did my Kato
Unitrack ballasting, with a fair number of pictures like the following.

This is Arizona Rock & Minerals "Mauve" ATSF ballast (real rock - I like that a lot better than the Woodland Scenics ballast,
IMHO, the real rock ballast looks a lot better, especially upon closeup inspection):



The ballasting steps I used are visible in the following picture. This is my first method (eventually, I switched to the
2nd method that I describe below on ballasting turnouts... and used that to ballast everything).

Both of the below methods assume the Unitrack is painted first. I made my track paint mixture using grimy black with a little bit of roof brown eyeballed in
to get a rusty brown look. See the following Community Webshots album of mine which has the painting of Kato Unitrack pictures: http://community.webshots.com/album/60614024xfYZdo

1st method ballasting: After carefully placing the ballast where I wanted it, I first carefully pre-wet the ballast with
an eye-dropper, using mixture of water with 91% isoprophyl alcohol added (that breaks the surface tension and wets the ballast without
disturbing it). Then, also using an eyedropper, I applied 50/50 mixture of water and white glue to the ballast. I *never* sprayed either
pre-wetting or applying glue - that would move the ballast out of position. Here's a pic of the 1st method:



The Kato turnouts have been carefully have ballasted using my 2nd method, which I eventually adopted for everything.

2nd method ballasting: developed on the turnouts and later used for everything, is to make a small thumbnail-sized
'glob' of ballast and 50/50 water-glue mixture, and then with a small screwdriver tip, carefully spoon that mixture into the
appropriate places on the Kato turnout. This assures that I would not glue shut the internal Kato switch machine.

This worked so well that I ended up using it on the rest of the layout. Yes, the layout is small so I could afford to do it
in such small portions:



I used PollyScale acrylic 'Earth' paint for the areas that I wouldn't / couldn't ballast:



Hope that helps!

 

I am considering Kato Unitrack, but I don't like seeing the track sections. Nearly every photo I've seen of ballasted unitrack does not show a section with the unijoiners. I must be over sensitive, but the Unijoiners stand out like big red flashing lights to me. I am wondering if they would vanish under some ballast? I'd like to think yes, but in the photos in post 25 the unijoiners are plainly visible in the second photo. I would rather deal with the pain of flex track than have to deal with unijoiners assaulting my sensitive eyes all the time.

Can anyone with first hand experience enlighten me?

 

Eric_L,

The one photo you mentioned looks like new track: Can't tell if weathered. Once ya darken up the rails, add ballast, glue, get the whole scene good & filthy and used for industrial purposes, then the joiners tend to be muted. Don't look too hard. My theory is, enjoy the experience of model RR using The bulletproof all-in-one track and accept the trade-offs of such.