I’m looking for a somewhat general consensus on weathering track using paint. Does it affect a decrease in performance? Is there any particular type of pain that is better than the others?
It would seem to me that paint would interfere with the connection, yet one of my books advises track weathering to increase realism. What say you all?
Weathering your rails does not mean leaving them with poor conductivity. You just have to clean the railhead itself after the paint dries. After you paint the rails run a track cleaner down em and burnish the tops of the rails clean. I’m sure you’ve seen rails done this way. Ever look down the line from a crossing? Now see the shiny tops of the rails in the sun? The train itself does this prototypically. But as your scale trains do not weight as much as the prototype you will have to do this yourself. Besides burnishing your railheads will give you even better conductivity while making it longer between cleanings. Burnishing closes up the pours on the metal rails “almost” stopping the rails from corroding.
It’s kinda like putting a good edge on a knife, you start with a course stone and move on to a finer stone then another and another and another. And when your done you can shave with a knife that was so dull when you started it had a hard time cutting soft butter.
Pre-painted, pre-weathered track will require cleaning down to the bare metal wherever you need to solder it. The tops and inside surfaces of the railheads have to be clean metal as well.
Everything else can be painted, weathered, treated with ground foam ‘weeds’ or encrusted with black ground goop to simulate Curve Grease downstream of a flange lubricator. None of the above should have any impact on operation.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
Getting paint in unsoldered rail joiners will cause problems if your not relying on feeder wires for your power.
I find that using the flat tan camoflage paint available at Wal-Mart looks pretty good. I just spray it, then clean the railheads good.
No conductivity problems if there is no paint on the top of the rail!
I spray Tamiya Red Brown on the track and use a fresh razor blade to scrape the paint off the top after about 1 hour of drying.
Works like a charm.
I solder all the rail joints first so no paint can can leak down an dact as an insulator. I use Rust-Oleum Rusty Metal Primer (Available from Wal-Mart) to spray the rails a nice rust color then go over with a grimy black wash, let dry then I polish the top and inside top edge of the clean.
Hey Mad Bomber!
Seeking a general consensus on this forum is like herding cats! There seem to be as many methods and paint types as there are modellers.
My preference is to install the track and all the feeders first. Get everything running smoothly and to my satisfaction. My layout room is enclosed so I don’t really like to use spray paints. So I just mix up grimy rail tie colors and rusty colors (no particular formula) using the cheap acrylic paints found in Walmart et al. I then hand brush it all on.
The point of consensus is that we all then go back and clean the rail heads.
Here’s my N scale track. Like Jeff, I solder the rail joints. The track was airbrushed before ballasting with PolyScale Railroad Tie Brown. The siding in the back (with the cinder ballast) was then brush painted with PolyScale D&RGW Building Brown on the rails and the ties were drybrushed with PolyScale Concrete.
I had an old Bright Boy track cleaning bar I didn’t mind sacrificing, so I used it to polish the railhead after the paint had begun to dry but before it had hardened. Then I ballasted. After that I weathered the ballast using Joe Fugate’s method where you sprinkle a mixture of dry tempera paint powder with a little hydrocal and then wet it to get it to set.
That funny-looking thing between the rails in the center of the picture is a photocell I use to control the signal at that location. Later I ballasted it a bit more so it’s not really noticable unless you’re looking for it.
Also, you’ll want to put a little tape over the turnout throwbar area when you paint to keep paint off the inside of the closure rails where they contact the stock rails.
I used to do that too, but now I just hand paint the turnouts. It ends up being faster and less hassle, and blends in just fine. I still airbrush the flextrack before I install, but I also solder feeder wires to each piece first.
Chris
I am masochistic and I just love pain of all types!
I weather my Micro Engineering N Scale Code 55 flex track with one of two mixtures of Tamiya flat paint. For my mainline I mix 3 parts white, one part red, and two parts brown; for sidings, spurs, and other side tracks I use four parts white, two parts red, and three parts brown. I liven things up with a touch of gloss orange. I have a painting jig with a shallow routed channel in a length of hardwood; I set my flex track into this channel channel and use an airbrush to LIGHTLY!!! spray the rail.
I have another jig I use to finish off the railheads once my paint is dry. This jig is a three inch length of hardwood trimmed to the gauge of the track minus the thickness of a sheet of coarse emory sandpaper. I glue this sandpaper to this length of hardwood and then run it down the inside of the track to remove the paint; I rotate my jig 90 degrees and run it along the top of the rail to remove that paint.
When I need to solder something to the web I use a fiber disk to remove the paint.
Hi,
I noticed some ads for some track weathering pens (like Sharpies) that came in 3 colors. Apparently they are selling pretty good as they are out of stock at Walthers and the LHS. Anyone use them yet???
Thanks,
Mobilman44
Well, I’m not really into pain so I wouldn’t know![swg]
One of the nice things about nerve damage is you can’t feel pain.