Buff Fine Ballast Bag

The light stone of a parched landscape

An ocher tone with a hint toward sand matches crushed limestone and light sediments. Such a surface is seen in southern Europe, in North Africa and on any dry section of line where the sun has drawn all the color out of the stone. On a diorama a light ballast changes the mood of a scene at once: it suppresses the greenery, emphasizes the shadows and equipment on it looks dusty even without further toning.

Where the light fraction suits

• a dusty road to a homestead along which a vehicle has passed and raised a cloud of dust
• the edges of a line in steppe or semi-desert, where the bed merges with the surrounding soil
• limestone rubble under a rock outcrop and in the bed of a dried-out stream
• a light layer under a deposit of darker dust that is applied last

Light material is worked with differently from dark: every drop of binder leaves a trace on it, and so it pays to apply the fixing solution from a pipette from below, into an already dampened layer. Soften the water beforehand with a drop of dish soap and thin the glue generously, so that the soaking does not stay glossy once it has dried. If a dark mark does appear after all, it goes away by dusting over it with a dry pigment of the same shade.

A light ballast combines excellently with brown and gray, because in the transitions it creates the impression of the natural unevenness of stone. In the package there are 353 cm³ of material, so it is enough for several smaller areas as well as for later repairs.

When dosing it, reckon with a light layer having to be thinner than a dark one. An over-poured area loses its texture and starts to resemble sugar, so it is more reasonable to pour less and in a second round to fill in only the bare places.