Dave, Kitty litter is great for scenery work. I buy the cheapest unscented kind for $1 a bag at Wal-Mart. It can be used for talus and fill, but it’s not great for ballast. I have strained it down to the proper size (or close) using a tea strainer, but it’s very time consuming. Better to buy the bulk Woodland Scenics products and use my time more productively. There is also the matter of color preference. I am more fussy about the color of ballast than of scenic rocks.
I like to use Matte Medium to attach ballast. It dries to a flat finish and has a rubbery property that seems to deaden the sound much better than white glue. I use white glue on the rest of my scenery away from the track, though. Just my subjective observations. Roger Nulton Tacoma, WA From: David Engle Sent: Saturday, April 02, 2011 8:19 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: {S-Scale List} Re: Ballast Anyone ever use the version of "Kitty Litter" that hasn't been colored green? May be a little coarse for some places. DJE ----- Original Message ----- From: Brian Jackson To: mailto:S-Scale%40yahoogroups.com Sent: Saturday, April 02, 2011 10:02 AM Subject: {S-Scale List} Re: Ballast Gents, Our entire railroad is ballasted using various brands of floor wax. The original Future is no longer available. We now use Lundmark All-Wax Floor Wax, purchased from Ace. All one needs to do is spray a little water/detergent to wet down the ballast, then flow the wax on with an eyedropper/ear-flushing bulb. Sometimes, you can even spray the wax on if you don't have scenery completed in the vicinity. Faster than white glue and far easier to apply. Might leave a little gloss on the ties, but you won't notice it, or even care if you do, because, by gum, you got all of your track ballasted instead of putting it off. Someone mentioned using sand for ballast (or at least trying to), I strongly advise against that: you will end up with ultra fine silica particles everywhere on your layout (no matter how much glue you use), which will work their way up into your steam locos' running gear. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
