Ballast - a possible solution

I had to go into town yesterday, so I stopped off at an art supplies shop and bought a block of DAS modelling clay to experiment with.  I took a six inch length of Peco Code 55 track, glued it to a scrap bit of chipboard then set to work.  Firstly I covered the entire track area with clay, pressed it into the gaps between the sleepers, then scraped off the surface approximately level with the tops of the sleepers.  Then, using a dab of water, fingers and a damp sponge I shaped the track bed so that the clay was just below the sleeper tops.

I carefully scraped any surplus clay from both sides of the rails and made sure the area in the 'six foot' either side of the track was nice and flat.  Finally I used a paintbrush, end on, to stipple the surface on one half of my experimental length.  For the other half I covered the trackbed in very fine sand, tamped it down then turned the whole thing upside down to shake off the excess..  I then ran my finger over the trackbed to smooth the sand into the clay.  I let the whole thing dry for a couple of hours, brushed off any surplus grains of sand, then sprayed a coat of satin black chassis paint over the whole lot (matt would have been better, but I just used what I had lying around).

Result?  The stippled area was disappointing - too smooth, and the clay tended to dip between the sleepers. The sand treated area was exactly what I was trying to achieve, apart from the slightly shiny sleepers due to using the wrong kind of paint...  I took a couple of photos of the test piece but they didn't come out too well which is a shame.  It took me about half an hour to ballast six inches of track, but a lot of that was due to experimenting with different techniques.  I reckon one block of clay should do the entire layout, and it is a lot less hassle than the traditional dry ballast and PVA glue technique.  Now if I can just get my patent electromagnetic uncouplers to work, I might actually be able to lay some track...