Your experiment with the sand-like material gives roughly the same result, in darker, as a derelict track next to my home. Very convincing !

Hi Julian. We all learn from mistakes made by ourselves and others, so thanks for the tips.

Great video Julian. Interesting to see the developments in this area and the problems you experienced with the ballast in the goods shed area. It’s looking really good now. Thanks for sharing. Roy.

Hi Julian. Thanks for sharing your trails and tribulations with us of trying to ballast the goods yard area. It certainly put you through the mill a bit didn't it. Glad to see though that you managed to find a way of recovering it. I am looking forward to seeing more progress on it. All the best. Mark.

Hi Julian, thank you very much for sharing this demonstration with us. I am also starting my own diorama in a near future and you are a great inspiration! Can't wait to see it all finished. Cheers.

Dear Julian, most tile grouts have a designation for the width and depth of the joints they can properly fill. That characteristic may have been the cause of the grout on the larger surfaces not bonding. In such a case it may be sensible to either do thinner layers, and build it up, or to indeed use your alternative method. The disadvantage of the making the mixture is that you’ll loose some of the intended texture and color aspects will blend into a more overall similar hue. Another alternative is to change out the mod podge matte, for true matte medium. And/or a more soaking with IPA/ more rich in IPA mixture. Love the idea of the compacted earth, cinders and other debris. In the end this will definitely look the part, even with the setback. Oh, one more thing, don’t know if you had this tile grout for a while, or that you bought it new from the shelf. Tile grout has a shelf lifespan. Similar effects can appear when using out of date grout to fill joints. Cheerio

Hi Julian I think that is part of the fun of modelling try and error..Regards Barry.

Awesome video Julian!!! Thanks again for sharing! Cheers Onno.

Julian glad to see you admitted to the problem rather than fix it and just showed the finished result. As already said we all have these type of issues I have on my first few attempts at blasting I ended up ripping it up and redoing it. All part of this great hobby. Great video.

Nice work Julian. Maybe spray the Goods building with Matt spray coat before applying the Tamiya tape next time to seal the paper finish? I havent tried a large area like what you have done, but I add pva glue first then my textures followed by dilute pva glue to seal (no water/IPA needed). The surface tension of the underlying glue pulls in the dilute pva in and it all sets solid. Like you, most of my stuff is a trial and error experiment. Not all are successful. 🙄 Your plastering technique obviously works here. Looks great. Stay safe and happy modelling. Mon

G'day Julian. Always good to see 'your' techniques, and the yard is looking really good. One suggestion, if I may, is one more buttress at the end of the retaining wall to maintain the look of structural integrity. Cheers from Bali.

Only one item that I thought may be of interest to you. And that is that I would have made up and inserted the the two buffer stops on the sidings by the chain-link fence prior to adding the grout. Easier that way. Regards, Paul.

Hi Julian. I use Kiln dry sand used for block paving and painted it

Looking good keep up the good work thanks lee

Hi Julian, thanks for sharing the experiment! The grout does look really good already and can't wait to see it weathered and the goods shed in situ. It's going to look pretty realistic. Cheers.

Hi. You’ve given me ideas to really think about. I’m just at the stage of deciding the flooring for a loco yard area as I’m really struggling as to what to do! Great video. Many thanks, Andy 👍

I used household filler.worked fine 😊

From your photos of yards, while the dirt generally does only come up to the tops of the sleepers, it appears there are places of heaped up material, I presume to allow foot traffic (with carts??) easier access through the yard.

Julian, As mentioned, surface tension was plotting against you! 50/50 water/ipa minimum, mist over the surface then apply water/ipa with a dropper to penetrate right through. Then add glue mix and watch to make sure it wicks through. (You could see it ponding as you applied, these fine materials don’t behave like ballast, try fine sifted soil from the garden, works a treat). You can go less glue/matte medium, 30/70 is still plenty, take a little longer to go off. At this ratio even ordinary pva dries nice and matte. I reckon that scrub area at the end of the goods yard may be your best yet. The whole seen is looking fabulous 👍

On ya Kiwi! Julian mate, if you hadn't used the glad wrap I have no doubt that, whichever way you went in placing the bed, any moisture would have happily wicked up into the card of the shed, leading to swelling and peeling. I will be using your idea when I start doing some work on my layout with a little tweak. I intend mixing in some suitable matching colorings to represent local mud and soil working its' way through the ballast.

Don't forget to raise the buffer stop ends of sidings. The movement of wagons will force the track into the ballast, but not under the buffer stops. It's similar in action to that of tamper. It doesn't have to be much to look realistic, but in some sidings it could be foot or more.

I’m looking forward to seeing the layout when the ballasting is done. Apart from the ballasting, I think there’s little more to change at this stage.

Hi Jules! Well, it may have taken a slight detour into balls-up zone, but it’s great to see you managed to steer yourself back to the road of splendour with a great rescue job. To be honest, I think that looks excellent now, but I do wonder if the reason the test samples worked much better were because you did small sections at a time and thus it stayed damper, plus the moisture could cling to the track sleepers and therefore seep through better than a flat surface of just powder as the top bit would just absorb it all before it had a chance to seep through (I hope that makes sense! 😂), so I reckon the method would still work, but you just need to either soak it to hell or do a small section at a time 🤔 That said, the pre-mix grout looks great and will be even better once you have made it nice and grubby. I’d even rub some real cinder into it if you have got some charcoal briquettes or whatever to hand. 🙂 I know in my yard at work we still find old remnants from the steam days like huge lumps of coal that have lain untouched for decades only to be uprooted when they replace knackered sleepers 😂 As for the shed, take it as a blessing. You can now make it a feature by modelling shoddy repairs and maybe even have a guy repointing the bricks 😜 Cheers mate 👍🍻🍀

With such fine powders (like tile grout), the issue is (as I'm sure you know) surface tension potentially preventing the water and powder from mixing. I know you had IPA in the mix, but not sure if that is always sufficient on it's own. Adding a drop of washing up liquid (aka dish soap) is the usual suggestion, but I know from my aircraft modeling that some worry that such detergent is a potential long term contaminant.

Looking great Julian how much it changes the looking and fell of the yard. Take care hope all well and catch you one day. Kevin

Dishwashing liquid is the solution.

Mod Podge do not recommend watering down that much 1/3 water 2/3 Mod podge I think with out going back to there site