A guy named Phil from Belgium bought one of my Shapeways 3D people and shared a couple of photos. My poor figure pales in comparison to his weathering and detailing. Man, I wish I could do that. Just something new on a slow day, thought I would post it 
Martin, your figure looks really good, but that weathering is astonishingly good, like really the highest level. I understand weathering is a matter of taste, but for what he is trying to do it’s obvious this is just about perfection.
Having said that, the ballast sucks. It is waaaaaay too big. You got individual pieces of ballast that are half the size of a tie, which makes them dang near boulder size. It’s a pet complaint of mine, ballast: lack of it, too big, too small, wrong color, etc etc.
I know what everyone’s thinking: if you’re so damn great at ballast, let’s see some pictures! Well, I will post some pictures, but right now I’m working on my mining district. As soon as I get to the ballasting in the district, I’ll post pictures.
However, that weathering is about as good as it can get.
How much did that figure cost, Martin?
John Passaro said:
Martin, your figure looks really good, but that weathering is astonishingly good, like really the highest level. I understand weathering is a matter of taste, but for what he is trying to do it’s obvious this is just about perfection.
Having said that, the ballast sucks. It is waaaaaay too big. You got individual pieces of ballast that are half the size of a tie, which makes them dang near boulder size. It’s a pet complaint of mine, ballast: lack of it, too big, too small, wrong color, etc etc.
I know what everyone’s thinking: if you’re so damn great at ballast, let’s see some pictures! Well, I will post some pictures, but right now I’m working on my mining district. As soon as I get to the ballasting in the district, I’ll post pictures.
However, that weathering is about as good as it can get.
How much did that figure cost, Martin?
Note to self, Don’t post pictures of ballast lest we piss off John (http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-tongue-out.gif)(http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)I think I am gong to go buy some 1"minus clean crushed for my ballast.
Oh no, I knew I shouldn’t have said that!! What I meant was, you look at all the great things going on, including the perfect weathering of the rails, and that boulder-ballast seems like a mistake or something, and such an easy fix I’m surprised the guy went for that.
I think I just dug the hole deeper. I need to get back to my own layout now!
i’m with John on this. the ballast is too coarse compared with the excellent finish of loco and driver.
Wow, tough crowd! The whole thing looks great to me! 
