Hi, New to the hobby and trying to get some advice on howw to paint rust on my n scale track. Should I invest in an airbrush to to do the job?
I have only painted the track on one previous layout so I only have experience with the one technique I used. However, I was very pleased with the results, especially once the track was ballasted and weathered. I used a single action airbrush (purchased very inexpensively from Harbor Freight Tools) to paint mainly the rails (although some amount of paint hits the ties, too). I thinned Liquitex artist’s acrylic “Raw Umber” paint and sprayed it at a shallow angle at the sides of each rail. I tried wiping off the tops of the rails before the paint dried but found it too easy to remove paint from the sides of the rail head. Thus, I decided to wait until the paint dried, then carefully slid the edge of a stainless steel rule along the tops of the rails. The rule easily scraped just the tops of the rails clean without damaging the rail heads. The raw umber color gave the rails a dark, aged rust color. The overspray on the ties actually looked pretty good as well. After ballasting, I sprayed a wash of grimy black along the ballast and ties between the rails. I was very pleased with my results.
You will find that the real expense with air brushing is the air supply. I already owned a 4 HP compressor when I bought my first airbrush. Fortunately, Harbor Freight Tools offers an air brushing kit that includes a good quality dual action airbrush with a small compressor and all the plumbing for around $80. They also offer single action, dual action and compressor units at prices nobody else can touch. Yes, you will hear from those who claim never buy anything but a name brand airbrush. However, you can buy the HFT single action airbrush for $9.99 and it is a virtual clone of the Badger Model 350. It works quite well! I bought the HFT dual action airbrush for $14.99 on sale. It works quite well, too! Best of all, I can learn and make mistakes with each unit, even destroy and repl
I would seriously consider an airbrush if I were dealing with N scale tracks, particularly the smaller codes. It’s just too hard for me to do the hand-painting I like to do in HO with Code 100. I have no experience (yet) with Code 70, but that will come because I prefer the hand-painted look with its more variation in depth and tone as you apply dabs and swipes over the rail webbing.
There are marker pens made for painting rails, but again, I have no experience with them. If they are relatively fine at the tip, then merely wiping the sharp tip along the rail webs in any scale should be quite easy. Only those who are over-caffeinated or otherwise experiencing neuro-muscular difficulties would have a hard time with a manual brushing method.
Crandell
My MLH sold me a bottle of rust colored paint and a small roller that screws on the top. The paint feeds through a small tube to the roller. I then roll the roller along the track and the paints feeds down and paints the side of the track and the tops of the spikes. It works fairly well, which, for me, is better than a brush or a felt tip pen. I can’t do the airbrush thing because my scenery is all in. The small roller takes some practice but is the best I have found thus far.
I brush painted the sides of my rail with Floquil “Rust”. Only took one evening to do the entire layout.
I used an 18/0 brush (that’s pretty small, probably about 1/16" diameter) and ModelMaster Acryl Rust paint.
It was tedious, but the results were worth it. I could only do about an hour’s worth at a time without taking a break, but it only took me a weekend (about 6 hours total).
Supposedly, my airbrush will paint a 1/8" line, so if had it to do over, I’d probably use it.
Is it abandoned track or a very lightly used branch line? That’s about the only time I see rusty rails. Mostly track (I assume we’re talking about the sides of the rails) is a very dirty dark brown. Rustoleum Camoflage (sp?) brown does the job well, right out of the spray can.
Larry
That “dirty dark brown” is rust! ALL track is rusty. Rail is unpainted steel and steel starts rusting as soon as it hits the air. It isn’t just branch or abandoned track that rusts.
I would by some Floquil rail brown in the spray can and spray paint the track. After letting it dry for a day or two I would paint a few ties SP light gray. A couple of days after that I would use a small brush and hand paint the rails with Floquil rust. Unless you are going to use an airbrush for more than just painting track, it would not be worth it to buy one.
I’ve been using Floquil Rail Brown paint pens. It’s really easy to do. I completed some huge sections in very little time. No fuss no muss. Don’t worry if you get some on the ballast near the spikes, because that gets rusted as well.