I was wondering if anyone has painted MEC55 track. My biggest concern is getting paint on the white ties. Any help is greatly apprecieated.:tb-confused:
I think that's a good concern. Which is why I get mine weathered...that way the only thing I'd need to do to it would be to paint the clips - four to each tie. NOT! If I had to do it, I'd probably use masking tape to cover as much of the tie area as possible - which means three strips, one in the center and one for each side. You might also use cardboard strips but they would likely tend to get blown away by the spray. You might try asking if anyone has painted the PECO concrete tie track - it is not available weathered.
If ya followed a rule of RR'ing thumb you'd paint the ties Pollyscale Concrete to remove the plastic sheen. Then tape off and hit the rails at a low angle with Pollyscale Rust. If the paint oversprays it would look protoypical like real bleeding of iron oxide down onto the ties like the real thing. 3/16 in tape should work between the rails, 1/2in on the sides. My .02 (Canadien), T
There are a couple of ways to tackle this, and none are very efficient. Like Jim states, I have gone to the weathered ME stuff. I don't really like the color, and it takes a lot of elbow grease to get the blackening off the tops of the rails to make them shiny again, but it's a good BASE for further weathering without having to worry about 100% complete coverage, which often would result in excessively contaminating the concrete ties with not-concrete colors. Here's what I do... 1. Since the ME flex holds its shape, I go ahead and tack it down on the layout like it will be when placed down permanently....including cutting it to fit, bending the curves...EXACTLY as it will be placed. The value of this is that you can take it outside to paint it, and the spike heads will be less likely to leave a zebra stripe pattern on the rails if you bend the flextrack after painting/weathering. (this isn't as critical with the weathered track, but the unweathered will have nice shiny nickel silver dashes once you start putting it on the layout and bending it.) 2. Next, remove the track from the layout and prep it for painting. In my opinion it is imperative to paint the ties. With the weathered track you have to protect the rail when you are doing this or it defeats the purpose. I've tried several ways of doing this, each one designed to make the process faster. I get extremely frustrated with masking tape on n-scale track but if you can make it work that's probably the cheapest and maybe fastest way. I couldn't, so I went to plan C, or maybe it was D. So here's what I do... Go to the LHS to the Plastruct display and grab some 1/16" styrene "C" (or U ?) channel. They come in packages of ten 10" long pieces. So buy as many as it takes to do whatever you consider a "batch"...you'll effectively need 8 pieces per 1 piece of flextrack so it's kinda the same math as buying hot dogs and buns. You also need some kind of adhesive that is "tacky" but that can easily be reversed. I just used el cheapo clear silicone caulk. The channel fits over the rail fairly snug and is wide enough to mostly protect the spikes too even though that's not imperative. The adhesive keeps the channel from flying off when airbrushing and also to hold the styrene in place on the curves. It cleans up easily afterward. I usually apply 3-4 very small globs of the silicone across the length of the 10" piece...by the time you get all of them "globbed" then the first one has set up long enough to become a little less free flowing and more tacky. Then you just apply the C-channels to the rails. When your batch is ready, either lay the track pieces out on newspaper, or find a pretty large piece of scrap plywood, nail some small finishing nails into it, and hang the track on the nails. To me hanging it up just makes it easier to paint, but you may have more problem keeping the styrene channel in place. 3. As I said, I think painting the ties is key. First, I don't like the color the stock ties have, and second--as was mentioned--you want to take the plastic sheen off the ties. And I don't care for the "concrete" color either...to me it is more like aged concrete versus the mostly newer, whiter looking crossties. I used something like a 6:1 mix of Reefer White to Reefer Gray. This will look pretty "white" but remember that you'll likely go back with some washes of rust and grime, and possibly a thin overspray of dust to tie everything together. And obviously you can adjust the paint to suit your tastes. So, back to the "batch", you need to make sure you paint at an exactly perpendicular angle to avoid painting the bottom of the rails and even to some extent the spikes. You don't have to get complete coverage over every inch of the concrete ties...just make sure the parts you can see head-on get good coverage and all is well. So at the end of this step the pertinant parts of the conrete ties should be painted an appropriate color. Now remove the styrene channel "masks" and clean the goop off the rails. 4. Now is the time to alter the rails and pandrol clips. (spikes) The pandrol clips will be the last thing before weathering. At this point, the process can differ depending on weathered, non-weathered and/or if you like the factory weathering as-is. 4a. If you like the factory weathering, go to step 5. 4b. If you have unweathered rail or want to airbrush/spray the weathered rail, you probably will need to use a tape mask, just covering the spikes. I advise you to wait until the paint applied in step 3 is completely dry before proceeding. (24 hours?) There are varying widths of drafting tape and one of them is perfect for between the rails. (Sorry I don't recall right now which it is) If you can find one the correct width it will save you a ton of time. The middle has to cover extremely well, since the angle needed to paint the sides of the rail will bounce paint back and under the tape if it is not applied well. 4c. The third option is using a handheld cardstock or notecard mask and either drybrushing or using a paint pen for painting the rail sides. 5. Use a cardstock or notecard (or styrene) as a mask to paint the pandrol clips. If you a doing a ton of track you might want cut a template in the card with notched cut for the clips so you can really slip the mask in place quickly and paint the pandrol clips. (this is where the styrene would help probably) An orange paint pen represents brand new track, while the Floquil "Rust" paint pen is pretty much perfect otherwise. 6. Now onto weathering. This will be much like normal track, except for having to aware of the conrete ties not being tolerant of mistakes or overshooting. I haven't got to this point yet, but my plan is to do very very thin washes. First a thin wash of rust around the rails and clips, and the maybe thin it even further for an overcoat of "rust dust". Then I would probably do a very thin grimy black wash, and finally a very thin airbrushing of "dust" to tie it all together. And once I had ballast down another ultra thin wash of "dust". Of course use your preferences here. (and hopefully share with the class!) Below is a photo of some Peco I had done before the ME stuff was out, and then some ME unaltered except for the pandrol clips. Yes, the orange is a little much, but this is before weathering and also before the Floquil rust pens were out. And try to find rust color paint pens otherwise...ain't happenin'!
Nice tips there Doug - I'll have to try some of those ideas. My only experience along these lines is with the pre-weathered track: I colored the clips with a brown Sharpie: It looked ok, but: a) it was very tedious, and b) it mostly washed off when I soaked the ballast with alcohol prior to applying glue. So this is a post on what not to do. :no: Does the Plastruct channel mask cover the tops of the clips? If so, do you think you could paint the rail & clips first with one color, then mask and paint the ties second? Thanks, Gary
Gary, you probably could do it that way. I'm guessing you mean so that you can just paint the whole thing without regards to painting the ties "rust color", and thus eliminating the tape? I would just be concerned about coverage then. You might end up having to put two coats of the white/gray color to cover the other, then you have three coats of paint on the ties....I guess subconsciously that's what I was trying to avoid. Not sure it would really matter though. That's kinda what I did with the Peco, although I masked the ties with tape, the pulled everything off and masked the rail with tape and painted the ties. That's when I knew I was done with tape. ;-) Honestly, if you are really good with an airbrush, you could probably do the whole thing without masking squat...maybe a little touch up on the pandrol clips and that's it. That's not me.
MRL - good luck. Let us know how it goes. Doug - I try to avoid techniques that require skill. But you're right that I was thinking of letting the rail color fall where it may then come back with enough concrete to cover it. However, after my Sharpie "disaster" I was starting to think that a series of washes would be good enough: a medium density brown along the base of the rails and a thin grimy black between the rails. These might impart a flat finish to the ties and give the illusion of colored clips with *much* less work - assuming you're starting with weathered rail. I'm going to try it on my test module. Cheers, Gary P.S. Weathered Concrete Flex is still out of stock at Kleins, Jim.
Yeah, Gary, been monitoring that, thanks. FWIW Rio Grande's real time inventory shows it in stock - if you know the stock numbers, cause the description doesn't say whether it's wood or concrete tie, but indicates both are in stock... I've had a bunch on order (for a while) from George (the Wigger) so am hoping that shows up before I'm ready to lay more track (after Christmas; got three families coming in, with kids that want to see trains running). Meantime, it was time to build a mountain or two...should update that this weekend when paint goes on. And to not hijack this thread completely, wow, you guys are really gluttons for punishment - painting the Pandrols!!! Each to his own!
Jim, I only have about 10 feet of visible concrete tie track so that's why I'm able to detail the track to this extent. Thank goodness I don't model the PRB! Actually, with a notecard and a paint pen, painting the pandrol clips actually goes pretty fast. The sides of the rail is what takes time. EDIT: I decided to upload a few pics of the prototype I'd taken recently...
My Sharpie test was just an experiment on a short stretch to see if it made enough of a difference to be worthwhile. For that technique the answer was a definite NO - too tedious and unstable. Painting and/or washing are still potentially interesting though. Cheers, Gary
