I want to paint my track so it is not black and silver. what kind and color of paint should I use for the ties and rails.
What should I use to paint the track? I don’t have an airbrush, so will a spray can work?
The track is glued to extruded foam so will that affect my paint choice?
What should I do when painting the switches and on the table switch machines?
[:)]Thanks[:)]
to paint switches, cover the points (the parts of the movable rails that touch the “stock” or “fixed” rails-the rails that don’t move) with tape or something to prevent any paint from getting on them.
Yes, you can use spray cans. Just make sure the paint is acrylic, as solvent-based paints (Floquil for instance) will attack your foam base and eat away at it.
As for colors, that’s all a matter of choice. If you have some tracks nearby, you might want to look at them for ideas. There’s been a number of articles in Model Railroading magazines over the years telling how to paint track, with color suggestions. You also might want to look at the color pictures in Model Railroading magazines too, for ideas.
Whatever colors you choose, though, BE SURE and clean ALL the paint off the tops of the rails after it dries with a track-cleaning eraser (availible from numerous manufactuers). This is important, so the electricity can come through the rails and power your trains. It doesn’t go through paint. Some people apply a little oil to the rail tops before the track is painted to make this a little easier.
Well, those are my methods. I’m sure a LOT of these guys will tell you other ways!
I have just used the cheap paints from a craft store, mixed them in a plastic container, you can then cover it and use it again it won’t dry out, mix the colors to make look like rust, oranges, browns blacks etc, I just brushed both sides of the track doesn’t matter how sloppy, you will want to paint the ties also with a black, I then while wet used a rag over my finger tip and wiped the top of the rail, that leaves less clean up later, still use a brite boy or other claeaner after it dries,
I am not sure about spraying on foam so I will defer to others on this subject, however when I painted my rails this is what I did and it worked well.
Take 3-in-1 oil and put a light layer on top of the rails and all the points. Paint your rails, let them dry throughly and then take a rag or paper towel and clean the oil off the top. The oil should not dry or evaporate as long as you don’t wait more than a day or two. Be liberal with the oil and make sure you get a good coating on top of the rails. Finish up with a Bright Boy and there you go.
I use Floquil Rail brown and Polyscale Rairoad Tie Brown with an airbrush and paint the track before installing and touching up after installing the track.
Floquil (or any volatile solvent based paint) will eat foam. Pollyscale (or any water based paint) is safe on foam.
Thanks for your help so far.
How and with what do i paint the rails?
there is an article in the book "trestles and bridges " (Kalmbach publication) that uses three krylon spray paint colors…the rail - ruddy red primer, the track ties - flat black, and then a squirt or two of grey primer in various places to blend it all together …don’t use much paint either …a quick squirt will do the trick…it looks great,also, like mentioned above, wipe some oil on the top of the rails and in the turnout moving parts to keep the paint from sticking to these components…another way is with an air brush…i use a mixture of rail brown and roof brown for the rail and flat black for the ties…followed by a squirt of two with the gray primer in different places to blend it…Chuck[:D]
you can use an airbrush, spray cans, or a brush. However, using a brush is tedious, so I wouldn’t reccomend it. However, it does give you better control.
You say you don’t have an airbrush; if it’s because it’s hard to clean and to mix the paints, then I reccomend getting the AZTEC airbrush from Testors and using MODELFLEX paints from Badger. The Aztec is great, when you’re done painting simply wipe off the nozzle, wipe off the hose, inside and out and wipe off the part that connects to the paint bottle and that’s it!!! It take’s all of 30 seconds!!!
And if you use it with the Modelflex paints, there’s no need for mixing, as the paint’s already mixed for spraying, and, since it’s acrylic, it’s fine for foam.
As has already been said DON’T use a solvent-based paint on foam!!