Decrepidizing ties ....

I just made up that word, at least I think I did. Well, in the last post I had a crummy photo of the monitor that showed the abandoned track alongside the Delaware Lackawanna. Since I am trying to model the Cresco, PA area pretty faithfully, I really wanted to model a very decrepit right of way.

One of the first things is that rotted ties have a tendency to appear hollow, well, how would you do that? If you dig out from the top, while it might look okay, it won't look hollow. So I was able to start out doing these first five ties ...

So here are the ties after installation on the layout and application or Miniwax Ebony stain, a little bit of ballast and the addition of weeds. The weeds are paint bristles off an old paint brush that had been stained white already ...

I put the first ties down with carpenters glue, but then I remembered that I had pre-colored as per the directions on Joe Fugate's videos on scenery. That is the grey material above the unstained ties ... I did this to use as cement for the ties, but to also have them appear to be sunk into the earth ...

My process for adding the weeds is pretty slow ... I put a bottom layer of Aileen's Tacky Glue, then put in some ballast to help hold the paint bristles upright and then adhering that ballast with Future Floor Wax.

I added in a couple sprigs of Super Trees materials that I spray painted with grey spray paint and then glue some cigar leaves.

I hope you enjoy the photos and I hope to get more frequent blog updates .