Kato Paper Ballast? (24-017)

[scott]

Has anybody used this Kato paper ballast before? I'm just wondering if it looks fairly convincing. Honestly, if it's even halfway decent I'd consider using it rather than dealing with tiny dusty rocks again. :-P

[cteno4]

hugh, interesting. wonder if its printed on the paper or ballast glued to paper?

 

btw we used a formica at homedespot that is a fake granite and is pretty close to the kato ballast in our station platforms. simple and cheap (like $30 for a 4x8 sheet). alternative to ballasting a whole yard as well!

 

cheers

 

jeff

[Bernard]

How do you apply the paper ballast to the track?

[keitaro]

don't cut corners you'll end up regretting it, or at least thats my experience ahahaha.

 

I have 6 packs of ballast waiting, i'm dreading doing it. But at the same time looking forward to it as it will mean the project is mostly complete.

[scott]

How do you apply the paper ballast to the track?

 

I'm guessing that it's just used for the spaces between adjacent pieces of Unitrack, but I'm not sure.

[Bernard]

How do you apply the paper ballast to the track?

 

I'm guessing that it's just used for the spaces between adjacent pieces of Unitrack, but I'm not sure.

 

I'm thinking that you have to cut it but how would you get it between railroad ties? It seems like it would be easier to go with plain old ballast.

 

WS ballast tends to float when you wet it with glue because from what I've been told it's made from crushed walnut shells. Another company that makes ballast is "Highball" and they use real stone:

http://www.modeltrainstuff.com/Highball-Products-s/1255.htm

[Darklighter]

How do you apply the paper ballast to the track?

 

I'm guessing that it's just used for the spaces between adjacent pieces of Unitrack, but I'm not sure.

 

I'm thinking that you have to cut it but how would you get it between railroad ties?

 

 

I'm guessing you just put it between parallel pieces of Unitrack, e.g., to close the gap between 2 parallel single track pieces.

[KenS]

My guess is you lay this down and put track on top of it, in places where you want more ballast than what comes on the track (e.g., in yards or places where tracks split at a switch in a station.

 

I just paint the roadbed a neutral gray color similar to the one used on Unitrack, although that lacks the "texture" (color variation) that more traditional ballast would have.  Kato seems to be trying for a more exact match with Unitrack on the color shown, but it seems from the package like they might make other colors too.

[CaptOblivious]

Curiosuly, the label reads "one sheet each of five different colors". But kato track only comes in gray...?

[scott]

That way you have to buy more packs...

[clem24]

LOL What... The... Hell... Is all I have to say! Sooner or later, all Japanese layouts are going to start looking like the cheap dioramas that Nine Scale World does for their articles. I think some things are great for paper (Sankei) but others... not so much! ;)

[cteno4]

Actually a lot of japanese dont have full sceniced layouts, but will do more temporary setups on the floor or tables and do much more perceived scenery by putting down construction paper or fabric to indicate various things like earth, cement, vegetation. then plunk down track, buildings, catenary poles, trees, etc. these layouts only last a short while and are torn up (ie guy gets to have his buddies over for the weekend to run trains in the living room then its back to a living room monday).

 

this is how JRM started up doing this style of layout. then once we sort of settled on a track pattern we moved to doing cut out bits of formica between the tracks that we would do more realistic scenery on. we wanted to do a lot the perceived scenery technique as it represented how a lot of japanese model railroaders did theirs and is different from what most folks do here in NA. lots of folks were surprised how interesting something temporary like this could look and actually many beginners said to us that they thought they could get started this way as they liked what they saw and could see themselves starting like this, but could not see themselves starting a traditional layout. we only moved to the JRM 2.0 fully sceniced module system for easier transport and setup (setting the whole thing up, packing it away, transporting and storing thousands of pieces aint easy every show!), but it does loose that nice intro for newbies to see--its was a tradeoff.

 

i can see how this kato ballast paper would work for filling in a station or yard with ballast effect. we did the same thing in our stations with the gray granite formica pattern.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[Martijn Meerts]

I guess it's the same general idea as those rolls of grass you can paste on the baseboard, and have an instant grassy landscape. I know they exist in various ballast colors as well, since a friend of mine uses it on his layout. It looks okay-ish from a distance, but up close it's no good ;)