Cwmbach: Ballast weathering…

With the ‘lights on’ over Cwmbach in recent weeks I’ve recognised I would need to do something about the fresh grey ballast vs the cinder ballast used in the sidings. Procrastination set in - I dislike weathering ballast and certainly not the airbrush - but the need for some gentle modelling to occupy a busy mind over the weekend resulted in this…It is done. It wasn’t as hard as I feared (how often do we as modellers finding ourselves uttering those words). It looks good and I’m released to the next procrastination road block!I didn’t want a uniform appearance, and I don’t like the way airbrushed ‘dirt’ sits only on part of the ballast. I couldn’t use water based washes as they ran the risk of reactivating the scenic cement (and gumming up my turnouts all over again!). In the end it was my old friends, 33 and 98 plus liberal quantities of white spirit that created the soft edges and modulated effect I wanted.The weathering isn’t over yet, but it ‘finished’ enough to move on to the…