Ballast Glue

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Any liquid glue that is thin so it can spread down into the ballast will work.

I use 50/50 water / white glue mix. First I spray the ballast with wet water (water with a drop of soap in it) and then pour the thinned glue on.

Some members of my club use alcohol to wet the ballast before applying the thinned glue. Others just use Matte medium as their glue.
 


I use a white glue (like elmer's) diluted with isopropyl alcohol instead of water. It dries much faster, and the alcohol increases the "wetting" action (same as the soap used by others) altho the fumes can be a bit intense.
 
I use Woodland Scenics Scenic Cement....probably because it's what I use for most of my other scenic work. White glue sometimes dries with a shine to it, and seldom dries clear. I use a trigger sprayer for my ground foam work (first a spray bottle of water, then the glue), but do my ballasting with an eyedropper. I still use the water spray bottle , but use the dropper to keep the glue off the track. I make one pass down each side and one pass between the rails. It isn't the cheapest alternative, but it's quick and easy.
 
Which Woodland scenics cement do you use? and do you dilute it as noted earlier?
I do notice that the Woodland Scenics Foam Tack glue smells like elmers.
 
The product is actually called "Scenic Cement" and comes in a 16 oz bottle. It has the consistancy of water when you shake the bottle.....They make a trigger sprayer that screws right onto the bottle. They not only recommend it as a glue for scenic foam and ballast, but also as a sealant for their brush on pigments...you can spray this stuff on virtually anything and once dry it disappears, which is nice if you get any overspray on things you shouldn't. As I said before, it isn't the cheapest option, but for me the ease of use is worth the extra cost....no mixing, no worry about what it gets on, dries clear and matte, and it's water based, so you can get it to release if you need to.
 
Thanks. LOL. I have a bottle of it laying around and totally forgot about it. I never opened it and didn't realize it was for ballast. :)
 
I have no disagreements, but thought I would post my own methods since ,like so many other aspects of the hobby, there are several ways to do the same thing.

I have used yellow carpenter's glue (Elmer's or generic from the hardware chain) diluted about 8/1 in favour of the water. I also add the obligatory two drops of liquid dish detergent to help as a penetrant against surface tension. I dribble the standard drug store isopropyl alcohol onto the ballast until I figure it is close to soaked, and do not allow any to run out the bottom edges of the ballast. I then dribble the light glue mixture with a squeeze bottle, the twist nozzle type, and try only to glue the top 1/8" or so of the ballast, maybe another 1/16th. This is so that taking up the track sections for repairs or just to recycle them for a new layout, is relatively easy. I could soak the ballast, though, because that works to soften a monolithic block of solidly glued ballast as well.

BTW, I use the same glue sprayed for scenic materials such as ground cover. I also dip the bottoms of tiny blobs of bush material ground foam into straight yellow glue and place them on the layout for bushes. Once it dries you won't know the difference.

-Crandell
 


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