Can someone tell me how they simulate rust on the sides of their rails? Obviously you need to keep the tops of your rails clean for good conduction. But can someone tell me what they use to make the rest of the rails old and rusty looking?
Thanks
Smitty
Thinned down rust colored paint and a brush. Self adhesive weathering powders work too.
Here you see the track and turnouts:
and then I’ve airbrushed the track with redbrown and a little bit black:
For the rails I used the rubber from Roco or Piko. It has no sand!
Wolfgang
Kalmbach has a publication with a track weathering method that I use that works well. I use three colors of krylon paint. Red primer, flat black, and primer gray. First with a soft cloth, wipe some wahl’s clipper oil on the tops of the rails so the paint won’t stick to them then spray the rails from the side with the primer red. ( I use some card stock over the outside ties to keep the overspray to a dull roar.) Then from directly over the top of the rails and ties, spray the rails and ties with the flat black. Then in random places along the track, give the track a light spray here and there with the primer gray to create highlights along the way. Once the paint dries i’ll use a bright boy track cleaner to clean up the rail tops. Be sure you also ventilate the room well and wear a filter cartridge respirator so you have more than 2 brain cells left over when you’re done spray painting. It’s a fast easy way to weather a lot of track and the final product looks great…chuck
You can use pretty much any kind of paint and application method, there are no rules here. I have sprayed them with rust colored auto primer, Testors flat brown, etc. I have also brush painted with rust colored acrylic paints. Once the rails are painted you can spray the ties from directly above as someonelse mentioned or brush on some washes of a brown/black and a gray to sort of blend things together. In any case you’ll have to clean the tops of the rails when you’re done. Practice on some old snap track.
First, I hand paint. I respect that others use airbrushes, but I like the dribble-down look of rusty tie plates and the ballast alongside the rails as I see in the real world. I have used Polly Scale Railroad Tie Brown and Floquil Rust. So far, I have used them alone, but I have wondered about overpainting with the two to get a more realistic colour…? Joe Fugate uses Roof Brown by Polly, I think…the name is right, not sure of the make…and had I found it locally I would have used it preferentially.
If you paint, I believe Rustoleum and Krylon make rust-like primers which some guys’ll tell you is God’s gift to the rail weatherer.
I paint the rail sides with Poly Scale rail brown and rust. Rust alone seems too bright.
I used to use a brush but it tended to leave a spot of shiny rail in the lee of every spike. Going back and forth with care not to get all over the ties was very time consuming.
Now I use a roller applicator made by Joe’s Model Trains www.joesmodeltrains.com
It consists of a bottle about the size of many liquid plastic cement bottles, a cap with a metal tube and an assortment of foam and plastic disks. The plastic disks guide it along the rail while the foam disk conveys the paint. You can paint the spikes and tie plates at the same time, in one pass, with no skipping. It is very much faster and very much easier then using a brush.
Later, after ballasting, I often airbrush or hand brush on some light weathering colors to blend everything.
I just mask off the areas that I don’t want paint on with masking tape. A strip down the middle to protect the ties between the rails and strips down the sides to protect the ends of the ties. I then hold a piece of poster paper behind the track that I’m going to paint and give the track a quick blast of Rust-Oleum Rusty Metal Primer. After it dries I I gently scrup the railheads with a piece of cork to remove the paint from the top of the rails. I pull up the tape and move and move on to the next section. I can do a five foot section of track in five minutes on a bad day. Faster on a good day.
I’ve got one of these ordered. Looking forward to trying it out; hope it works well, as I could have bought a lot of spray paint instead 
For the track I handlay it’s a snap. Put the paint your using (Polly rust, etc.) on a rag and wipe the rail, let dry and then lay track. I usually do up a bunch in advance so its ready when I need it. I don’t bother wiping off the tops when I paint it as I find that I can easily scrape off the tops with a single eded razor blade after the tracks laid.
I prefer to spray paint sectional track and flex track before I use it and touch up as necessary after laying it. It takes time, but I like to spray paint overall, and go back and hand brush the rail sides.
Lately I’ve been using some of the spray paints designed for hunters to camoflauge blinds, boats etc. The paint is billed as ultra flat, and it really is very flat. It’s made in a variety of colors, and there’s a brown that looks great on ties. It’s available in the paint or sporting good section of your friendly local mega discount chain.
JBB
[#ditto] That’s what I’ve been using for a base color too.(Earth Brown) Rustoleum also has a good flat brown that’s a little lighter color. (non camouflage paint)
I spray the track with Tamiya Red Brown after putting a very thin coat of oil on the tops of the rails. After the paint is dry, I wipe the tops of the rails and remove any excess paint by scraping with a sharp razor blade.
Sometimes I then put a black wash on parts of the ties.
Once upon a time I used to do it all by hand…[D)]
Simple way. Use a brown sharpie.
Yeah, I tried that awhile back. But no matter what I did, there was always still silver showing through here and there, especially around the ties, etc.
Also, the Sharpie ink is a gloss, instead of flat.