so things are progressing along and I'm just about to the point of painting the rail. the problem is I'm not sure about what color to use. more specifically what color poly scale or flowquil to use. id like to spray the rails, but I don't have an airbrush so I'm not against krylon at this point either, as long as it has a nice oxide brownish color. if I can't find a spray in a can, ill just have to brush paint. any have some recommendations?
I used a microbrush to paint PolyScale Dirt, Poly Scale Brown and Craft Store Tan on my last module and it turned out real nice. I'm not sure if acrylics will stand the test of time though, but it's alot easier to clean up wet than enamels. I think painting multiple colors adds to the realism. I started with a light color on everything, then painted rails and ties to suit the eye. Also, I think for scale reality it's better to go a little lighter than prototype color. On a previous layout I used Rust-O-Leum Camoflage Brown and Khaki I wouldn't recommend the spray bomb. It took way more time cleaning the railheads than it would have taken to brush paint it. And I never got good electrical contact on some sections of track.
I use rail brown as maxairdale suggests. I use the airbrush and wipe the rail heads right away, then any touchup with paint markers. JSL
im liking the rail brown spray can route. ill have to tape off the contacts around switches. and I've heard rubbing some 3 in 1 oil on the railheads can help with cleanup. any truth to that? how easy are the paint pens to use on the small rails?
Model Master Dark Skin Tone followed by just a hint of rust is about the closest I've ever found. Rail Brown looks too brown to me. I might mix more grey for my next module and see how that turns out
I like the Floquil Marker set. Using the markers goes a lot faster than you might think. Randomly switching the three colors provides a natural look. Not a lot of clean up either.
I have noticed a few things in my 20+ years working for the railroad. One thing is that rail is not just one color. Here are the guidelines I use to paint my rail. 1) Heavy mainline rail. Paint dark grey, on exits to yards and on heavy grades paint a very light grey to reflect the fact that the rail is being sanded by the locomotives. Lighter traffic rail is more brown and rusty 2) Light branchline main track. Paint Rail brown with floquil rust 3) Well used sidings for meeting and passing trains. Paint rail brown 4) Low traffic sidings and exposed industrial rail is a bright rust color 5) Low traffic rail that is in the shade or covered with weeds is a dark grey or black. 6) Rail in industrial sidings are usually the color of the commodity. Cement plant rail will be light grey/white As I see it , you can't hardly get rail color wrong, I've seen so many different shades of colors on rail. Randy
Great post Randy, can't improve on it. But lets talk ties at the same time. I'd used Pactra military enamels way back when - they had a dark earth that worked for the rail and ties both as I have brown ballast. Mainline rail also tends to pick up ballast color a lot; you get the gray dusting or whatever color it is. Just the cheap spray-bomb can. Mainline ties also tend to pick up the ballast color. That black color is pretty much just plain wrong unless its freshly laid ties. I used Roof Brown for the siding and industrial rails - a darker brown for rail that sees little activity or speed. I thin floquil about 30% so its more like a wash, that makes cleanup a lot easier as well. I'd recommend painting up some short sections, ballasting them, and photographing them as a test. I'm very pleased with the way mine looks, but that's more luck than planning. The oddest thing on my layout is the yard ties and rail... I spray-bombed the track a weathered light gray (borderline concrete color) as the color photos I had showed that color for ties widespread in sun-drenched Arizona. Rail then got diluted roof brown. Then everything got ballasted and weathered. It looks great, but I threw conventional wisdom out the window and went but what I actually saw, not what I thought I should do based on conventional modeling practice.
You bring up a good point that I neglected. I model the midwest and temperate rain forest. Arizona and the desert would have some different coloring for certain. In dry dusty climates I would expect the ballast dust to coat the rail , here in the rain forest the rail gets washed on a regular basis. Tie color is another challenge, with modern track machines the tops of the ties are usually cleaned of the black creosote leaving a chestnut brown color. In the old days the tie tops would be dark black until the creasote washed or wore away. I have some ties here that are in excellent condition despite the fact that they were installed in 1959 !! The colors are a light brown grey. The majority of the ties here are brown to brown grey to silver grey. On some old sidings the brown is all but gone, even when you break the ties open they are almost all solid light grey nearly white. Randy
Don't be araid to use Google Earth and Bing Maps as a modeling tool. You'll get more of a sense on earth color, track color, and ballast color from that than many other modeling sources. You can easily see the contrasts between main and sidings, ballast colors, etc. I've found myself going back and making things a whole lot browner on EVERYTHING from roads to concrete to platforms based on the photos of my areas. I'm adding brown washes and chalks to 'finished' areas. Sometimes I have to almost unfocus my eyes to try to get an impression on 'what color do I really SEE?' rather than 'what should I be seeing?'
This is a great thread, and a topic I've been thinking about recently. I'm working on that harbor/urban switching layout plan and was thinking "excellent, I won't need to do much ballasting!" But it occurred to me, "D'oh! Does anyone have any experience or suggestions for how to treat track in such an environment?" Photos found on a website about the Bush Terminal (AMAZING site, btw) basically show rails in the street, rails with cobblestones, rails compacted into the dirt, rails on the car float bridge and more. Any tips would be greatly appreciated. Thanks TBers!
well... to follow up with this, ive found success with Rusty Auto Primer, the dark Camo and flat dark brown spray paint. still need to solder the rails on the layout before spraying.
A point not yet discussed. If you will be doing a lot of photography, I would urge you to do some test sections and photograph them. You might find that pictures of track painted with rust colored whatevers will come out very bright and not looking good at all.
