I am in the proces of painting and wanting to weather switch stands but I dont know how to go about weathering the switch stands. I am using RIX switch stands and I have the targets painted but want to add some rust where would it collect on one of these? Any photos and advice would be helpful thanks.
I don’t have pics but rust generally follows the way water flows. So try to imagine water flowing.
You can use that for anything that rusts actually.
I hope that helps.
This picture needs a weed filter, but…
Most switch stands were pretty well maintained and would only rust at the most obvious spots, such as a little around bolts and some non-moving areas like on the base of the stand. The only heavily rusted stands would be those out of service. They are an integral part of the trackwork and would have been well maintained.
I took this shot on the EJ&E at Spaulding, Illinois, one week before the shed was torn down.
Well I decided to go ahead and weather up a switch stand to give it some class just light rusting in areas I figure its good for a spur or something, but to be honest I think it makes it look more realistic. heres a photo
Of course the one on the left is weathered with a microbrush with Model Flex rust color.
Haven’t seen one in real life but I would suspect that you are more likely to get dollops of black(ened) grease around the working parts and streaks of black(ish) water moved goo downstream from these.
As Neutrino says, switch stands are part of the regularly maintained trackwork. Train crew want them to be well maintained… difficult to work stands are a pain… if you get it wrong they can be a big pain (in the back) for a long time. So you will usually find them and everything attached to them well greased… so you might add the grease tubs and a stick for dolloping the grease out nearby. (I don’t have a clue why but some switches dry out far more readily than others… also some - in quarries and the like - get grit in them… and so on…)
I will be adding grimey black as soon as I can find my bottle of it.I wanted to tone down the shiney black of the plastic and unfortunately the rust didnt tone it down hardly at all. Hmm Maybe I should try some brush on dull coat after all is said and done maybe this weekend if I have time.
I did the grimey black paint and it looks good gonna get pictures a little later to show. Thanks for the help.