The road from the side
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The finished road
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This is the grade crossing after using the comb.
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Close up of the crossing (Click Image to Enlarge)
I made wheel marks in the grade crossing area.
The wheel tracks weren't well defined. Not enough force could be applied to the wheels. They also collected to much "mud". I tried wetting the path but the wagon didn't work.
I was looking for some instrument to make wheel marks. A comb was lying there and I tried it. It worked. It made wheel marks and could be controlled.
I made marks around the crossing.
I wanted a contrast so I gave the road a wash of Rit Dark Brown Liquid Dye. The dye straight from the bottle was too dark. I sprayed the road with water and diluted the dye and scrubbed it down the hill.
The grade crossing with the dye wash, it was flat and the wheel paths were undefined.
The talc/paint mixture was stippled up the wheel paths. This looked good. Make sure the paths are stippled. Painting the tracks with the talc/paint will look like "mud" and not sand.
The finished wheel paths.
I took a very dilute mixture of the talc/paint and washed it over the shoulder to blend the road to the original ground cover.
Clean the sides and tops of the rails with a piece of brass angle. The brass is softer than the rail and cleans with minimal marks.
Clean both sides of the rail and make sure there are clear flangeways.
Run a car over the rails. The sound will tell whether the rails are clean.
Repaint the rails and touch up the dirt with the talc/paint.
This is not really a "How-to" but more of "What-I-did". I am sure there are other ways of doing things. That is why I have a lot of pictures, I am showing all the things I did. Articles in magazines only have a few pages to fill-in between advertisements. I find this more enjoyable. This is modeling in O scale but I am sure it can be transfered to other scales.
