I’m in process of preparing to paint my track, ties/rails (Peco brand). I’ve been doing some tests on some scrap pieces of track to see what works and what doesn’t and to get a nice look.
I’m using Vallejo Acrylic model paints to do this. I’ve gotten the look more or less where I wanted…
However, something I’m noticing is that this paint rubs off the plastic ties rather easily. Ever after 24hrs. Even a medium bit of pressure with my finger can risk rubbing off the paint.
I’ve tried using a primer first, but at least the Vallejo primer I’m trying with, the primer isn’t adhering all that better…
My only other idea was to apply a matte varnish over top the paint, I’m hoping this can provide some protection? It does a good job with my buildings, however those didn’t have this same degree of problem.
Maybe when I go to glue the ballast, the glue will also provide its own protective layer and it won’t be something to worry about?
Is this just an issue I should expect to have?
Track is obviously not something that’ll be touched a lot, but even still the fragileness of the paint gives me a bit of pause. I can imagine simple wheel scrapes could damage it.
What methods do you use and how do you deal with this? Is there a better primer to use on this shiny plastic? (I’m hand painting, not spraying).
(I’m currently in the process of testing a section that I swabbed with IPA prior to painting, this might help break down any oils or manufactoring residue, since I can’t use soap/water like plastic buildings? I’ll see if this helps any once the paint dries)
The first thing that came to mind is that there is some kind of parting agent or lubricant left on the ties. If you have ‘un-laid’ lengths or sections of track, you might be able to scrub it with a detergent like Dawn and thoroughly rinse and dry it. This would also remove any drawing lubricant from the rails.
An alternative would be to apply an etching primer to the ties before the track is laid – this would be easy to do even with a brush, and could be heated gently to speed drying. I would be tempted to do the ‘first step’ of painting some of the ties before laying the track, too as access and view will be much easier. That would include any oil drips, sand, etc. as well as dragging marks.
I would tentatively agree with the idea of using ‘Dullcote’ or a fixative on the track after weathering it, particularly if you use chalk or pigments. You can make your own flat clear finish by using a fine aggregate like talc in a material like damar/Kamar varnish that has greater film strength than regular Dullcote. You might use a model paint gun rather than an airbrush to apply that material.
Maybe I do this too easy. I take a spray can of Rust-Oleum Camouflage brown, spray the rails and ties and wipe of the top of the rails before it dries. Weathering can be done later if desired.
The track isn’t glued/nailed down yet, however it is cut to length, laid, with the feeders soldered and everything wired. I can lift it off the board, given the slack, but anything beyond that would be a bit of a nightmare.
Although I didn’t scrub with detergent/water (I’d be kind of concerned about water damage?)… I did take a small piece of test track and wiped it down with 99% IPA, prior to painting… I didn’t notice a change here, I suppose I can do this step either way since it’s non-invasive simple enough with nothing to lose.
I use Vallejo Matte Varnish then a coat of AK Matte Varnish (the former is stronger, and the latter takes away the slight gloss of the former), on my buildings I paint. Pretty good at protecting the buildings (made of resin, so it has some adhesion issues) but the buildings never had the same degree of fragility as this track (even before the varnishes)…
It’s a smaller layout with only like 30-40’ of track, so hand painting a couple layers of varnish wouldn’t be too terrible.
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As a side note, with this same track I’ve been testing various methods of gluing it to the roadbed. I initially tried using latex caulk. The caulk sticks to the homasote and cork excellently, however this peco track lifts clean off the latex (by hand with little force, spatula/scraper not required) …
I’m currently running tests with Elmers PVA Glue, “Tacky Glue”, and Wood Glue, to see if any of those perform better… I think the Peco’s plastic is part of my problem.
The track isn’t glued/nailed down yet, however it is cut to length, laid, with the feeders soldered and everything wired. I can lift it off the board, given the slack, but anything beyond that would be a bit of a nightmare. And I don’t really want to be using spray paint inside (the layout is in a finished area, not a garage/basement).
The Homasote is absorbing some of the water from the caulk and ‘starving’ its bond. You could solve this with thinned coats of matte medium or PVA, but you want to be careful not to create a ‘shell’ of hardened glue in the upper face of the Homasote – it may tend to ‘drum’ just as too stiff a method of ballast fixation will. Don’t just seal across the top of the Homasote or you may have the same separation problem with your seal layer – let something elastic soak in and ‘key’ into all the little paper layers.
Etching primer on the bottom of the ties ought to give proper adhesion to thinned latex caulk, for that ‘side’ of the bonding layer. You might also try the sort of ‘purple primer’ used for activating PVC/CPVC pipe joints – one small can of that stuff will do the undersides of many pieces of track…
I even used more latex than I though would be necessary just to be sure…
I used the latex caulk to glue the same homasote to my cork base layer, and it adhered very strongly without any preparation.
I’ve also tested using the latex caulk to adhere the track to wood directly, same issue…
And just to verify, I had a piece of atlas track laying around, and attached it to the homasote with the latex caulk. It’s holding very strongly… I think it’s something with the type of plastic Peco uses.
The black primer in the vallejo metal color line (77.x) adheres incredibly well to brass and bronze, you might try that for adhering the paint to the rails. I’ve also used rust-oleum painter’s touch 2X flat grey/black/white primer to prime for vallejo paint with success on styrene, not sure if it will work for delrin ties. The other thing to consider is that if using the Vallejo Model Color line, those paints must be thinned before application to bond well (something about the paint drying too fast or being too thick to fully bond), I like to just use Vallejo airbrush thinner, and usually thin the paint to about 2/3 paint to 1/3 thinner.
On Walthers track and two Peco Streamline turnouts, I can tell you that Tamaya paint works extremely well. This was on track that had been cleaned with mineral spirits and treated with InOx, a petroleum based non-polar coating.
I can also tell you that hobby grade acrylics work extremely poorly. Even with a proper acrylic paint thinner, they cover poorly and bead up.
It may be that your Peco track has residual mold release agent on it, or some such. But personally, the first thing I would suspect is your paint.
Someone commented offhand on another thread about track that uses Delrin (acetal) for tie strips. I had not even thought about such a thing… but acetal is known for very low surface activity and there are special approaches to get coatings to bond to it. We have had a couple of threads on the subject.
Commercial methods of surface activation could theoretically be used both on the top of the tie strip (for better paint adhesion) and bottom (better effectiveness of acrylic caulk bedding) but I suspect “hobby-scale” equipment and technique would be out of most people’s price range. The same is probably true of the industrial surface primers – the minimum order quantity, let alone shipping, would probably keep a club-size operation supplied for many years.;
I do think that washing new strips with detergent (and promptly drying them) to remove parting and drawing lubricants/agents is a reasonable first step if you’re going to paint track. As noted, you might try the primer supplied for plastic pipe adhesive, or for high-strength adhesive (as supplied for attaching rear-view mirrors to windshields).
Vac29, for my N Scale track, I used finishing nails every 18 inches or so to hold the track in place while the ballast dried. The holes filled in when the track was ballasted.
Since I have an airbrush, I applied acrylic “rust” paint to the rail web (cleaning off the railhead once the paint was well dried. I found that an old credit card was ideal for that task.)This process dirtied up the ties sufficiently to satisfy me, so that additional weathering from the ballast application was all that I desired.
I apply craft paints using a brush, directly on the plastic, using various shades of brown and rust. It seems to hold after 5 years. I also weather using powders and washes. I have a colleague at the club that does the same thing, but he puts a LOT of alcool in his ballast glue mix, and that affects the paint. I don’t have that problem - I think my glue mix has more water. In any case, I think touch-ups are to be expected.