painting track

[smart]

Is it possible to paint track after the ballast is put down? thanks

 

                                                                              Will,                      

[selector]

Yes, and is the preferred way for some of us.  I believe Joe Fugate does this, and so did I.  The results look good, to my eyes.  For one thing, if you do it in a controlled manner, and use a fine brush, you will get some bleeding down onto the tie plates, ties and the close ballast.  In that respect, the prototype "paints" its rails after ballasting as well.  If it works for them......

[smart]

Selector that track looks great!!!!

[selector]

Thanks, and what is amazing is that it doesn't look like that with the Mark I eyeball.  It looks rusty, but the paint I used was Poly Scale "Railroad Tie Brown".  The weird thing is that several of us have reported less than ideal results with this one brand and paint.  I find it too greenish, while others' images look quite stunning and nicely rusty.  I can't explain why the image above looks as good as it does, but I can't find a way to take credit for it.   Maybe it's the adjacent safety rails, the outboard ones that are painted with creosote...the real stuff...and the relfected light helps the nearby rails....dunno.

For your purposes, you may want to pre-paint some rail, a short section, ballast it, and then do it my way.  See the difference.

-Crandell

[Medina1128]

I was using the tan camoflage paint available from Walmart and was pleased with the results, until I finally broke down and bought an airbrush; much finer spray and more control.