Best ways to change ballast colour

[RobertInOntario]

I'm not a big fan of WS ballast straight out of the bag. It is too uniform in color and size to suit my taste. My recommendation is to buy the most obvious color of the ballast you are trying to replicate. For example, if the ballast on your prototype looks like medium gray(overall), buy medium gray. Then, buy a bag of the next smaller size, of the next darker color, and blend to a proportion that looks best to you. For example, a suitable blend may be a full bag of medium sized medium gray, with half a bag of fine dark gray. That would look significantly better than a bag of medium gray alone.

In the real world, ballast should be rarely uniform color. The reasons:
1) real railroads may change the source of their ballast over the years. They rarely scrape up the old ballast - usually they just add more and this causes variety over the years.
2) rocks weather over time. Oil and chemicals leaking from the trains. Dirt, and dust settling on it. Chemical alteration of the rocks by sunlight, water, and air exposure.
3) even ballast from the same source rock has variation. Rock masses are seldom homogeneous in color.
4) The individual grains of ballast may show different shades because of how they are oriented and reflect light (shadow effect). these shadow effects seem to be less pronounced in smaller scales and under artificial light, so sometimes we have to exaggerate things.

Thanks ... Good points & observations, especially that WS ballast is too uniform in colour and size. I'll give this some thought as well -- mixing the different colours and sizes. Rob