Finishing for the Open House

 We have the O scale Convention coming and my house will be open so I have been pressing to finish the scenery that we can get done in time. So, Gale is applying his expertise to a culvert under the branch line to get it sceniced for me.

 Mike is working with Paul to cover the big hill with some heavy larger ground foam. Mike is working in the hatch we built a while ago.  You can see the coat of white glue that holds the material that he is spreading.

 Paul is working on the steeper slope of the hill. He is above that weathered track!

 Ed is filling in holes in the roadbed as I put a kerf in it to allow me to bend it. The slot of the kerf has been absorbing too much ballast so I have come up with a method of filling that slot with black sand to minimize the loss of the more expensive ballast.

Alan is putting a coat of Matte Medium on the greenery to ensure it stays in place as the slopes are steep.
This is about my last shot at scenery and now I will have to clean the floors, put away all the supplies and ensure the layout is running well by August 20. It is a good thing I learned to scrub floors when I was a kid.

Ballasting and Weathering the Main Line

 Well, I have put down the ballast on the main for a good section between Milton and the entrance to Northumberland. You have seen that I painted the track with Rustoleum Camouflage Earth Brown and then placed a limestone ballast, number 20, down with white glue. As I looked at the track, it seemed too pristine so I decided to weather it.  I took out my airbrush and made up some Floquil Rail Brown and Weathered Black mixed at 4 to 1 thinner to paint.

 This is how things looked at the start. I looked at track in town and it had a brownish center and a rust color around the rail and shoulders. I checked out You Tube and there were some videos on what other fellows had done.

 This appearance just cried out for more character so off we went.

 This is looking up hill to Northumberland

 Well, this is how it looked after I first sprayed the rail brown on the shoulders and along the rail sides. I also sprayed the black up the center of the track and also gave a light coat on the overall ballast structure. I learned that the air pressure of the spray gun popped out ballast pockets if the glue had not penetrated all the way down to the base.

 You can see the colors on the towel that I kept handy to adjust the intensity of the spray.

 Here is how the curve looks now - I think it really improved the situation.

 When I reached this point, I had to stop for the night. I also had had multiple problems with the ballast blowing out. So, I repaired those holes and touched them up.

 I also put a very heavy coat of glue on the remaining ballast.

Now I had no problem finishing the spraying as the ballast was firmly down.  I am pleased with the results and will keep on doing this.