should i paint my cork roadbed before laying track? if so, what kind of paint? color to match ballast? thank you lynne
I’ve never bothered, but it can’t hurt. I’d either paint it using something close to the ballast, or plain black. Use the cheapest spray paint you can find!
I think Ray Breyer brought up a good idea. If you paint cork roadbed to match the ballast you plan to use, show-through will be less noticeable if the ballast is a little thin in spots. This would be especially helpful around switch points, where you need to use as little ballast as possible to avoid interference with the moving parts.
So long,
Andy
thank you both. lynne
There is a guy on this forum who paints his cork roadbed. infact he paints it with the special paint that has chips in it. He told me that it looks great and that he doesnt need to ballast afterwards.
I am going to try his methods with painting the WS foam roadbed. If i can get it right, I wont need to ballast either. or I could ballast while the paint is still wet, that means lay the track while the paint is wet too, which brings up other issues i will need to address while doing it too.
Kevin
I have been using a method I learned from a group of Model Railroaders in Southern Illinois (thought it is probably used elsewhere). After laying the roadbed AND track I use a mixture of “Railroad Tie Brown” to paint both the track and roadbed. Befror the paint is completely dry moisten a towel with thinner and remove the paint from the tops of the rails. The only hard part is cutting small pieces of wood or plastic to fit in between the points of turnouts to protect the electrical contact. After cleanup a BriteBoy cay be run over the entuire layout and the ballasted.
I paint the cork with cheap grey primer ($1 a can spray paint) and after the track is laid I mask the roadbed off as close to the ties as I can get and paint the track and ties with Rustoleum earth brown.
Then ballast.
I used grey stone fleck paint to paint the roadbed on my son’s N scale layout (an idea from Model Railroader), and it worked great! He didn’t want to bother with ballasting, and the appearance was much better than plain cork. If he ever ballasted, it would just add to the effect.
Use a piece of cardboard to prevent overspray, and work in a ventillated area per the can’s directions, because the fumes are a little nasty.
I you do decide to paint your ballasted area, and it’s with a spray, bear in mind that is much easier to remove the paint from the tops of the rails if you use a thin coating of oil, Whal Oil is a good one. As for thr points, there it works best to apply some sort of barrier, like drafting tape (or a tape that sticks but isn’t gloppy when removed) and touch up the area by small brush - again use a thin coating of oil here also. Oh… If you use a dab of oil on a paer towel it works. Some recommend the type of sponge applicator to apply it, but that seems to be overkill. If you search in the Forum here and elsewhere you will find more information. “Model On Dude!”
Colin
everyone has such great ideas. i am going to paint the roadbed for sure. thanks lynne
Like others here I paint my roadbed and track after everything is down. Something else you should condider is to sand the cork down before you lay the track to remove any high spots and that curl at the top edge. If the curl is not removed you will have a much harder time getting the ballast to cover properly.