painting roadbed

[roadrat]

Well I just laid down a whole mess of cork roadbed and was wondering if I should paint it gray before I lay down track.
Any pro's and con's would be great.[:D]

thanks.

Bill

[cacole]

Gray painted roadbed doesn't stand out near as bad as bare cork if you miss a small area when you ballast. Most ballast is close enough to gray that it isn't as obvious where there are bare spots; so yes, painting the cork a light gray color is a good idea.

[bogp40]

Just use a good quality paint, the only bond for track/ ballast will be the paint to cork.

[canazar]

With my cork, I used cheap automotive gray primer. Worked great. dried with in minutes. Just spray it on.

Now, I also painted mine all before I laid it. if you have yours down allready and it is on foam, I woudl advise you tape off the foam as the primer will eat the foam pretty bad. paper or maksing tape would be perfect. Good luck

John k

[collingswood_don]

If you are not too price sensitive, you may want to consider one of the textured, multi-hue spray paints from the Valspar Plasti-kote's Fleck Stone line (http://www.plastikote.com/plastikote/homefa***emplate.jsp?searchcode=FLE&product=Fleckstone).

One S gauge vendor (http://www.classictrains.com/useage.htm) advocates using the Manhattan Mist color (on Vinylbed roadbed) and nothing else. With or without ballast, I think that Gotham Gray or Soapstone may be a better choice of color.

I appreciate you raising this question. I have been thinking about the same thing. Regardless of which vendor's product, can anyone confirm that spray paint/primer would eat through Woodland Scenics roadbed?

[JBCA]

"Regardless of which vendor's product, can anyone confirm that spray paint/primer would eat through Woodland Scenics roadbed?"

I echo that question but have a different problem. I have the track all laid over bare cork and was thinking of spraying the whole thing with a rust colour then scraping the tops of the rails for conductivity. I am concerned about the paint eating the plastic ties.

[rrinker]

Evern Floquil paint won't eat the ties used for Atlas track. But it WILL eat foam roadbed or extruded foam benchwork. So for the track already laid, we are using a combination of Polly-S (water based - doesn't eat foam) rust and aged black. Tedious to brush paint, but it's coming out GREAT. I'll have to get some pictures for my next update.
Going forward, we will get some spray cans of similar colors of Floquil and paint the track BEFORE laying it - no worries about the foam then.
Testors enamal does not eat foam roadbed or foam. But the gray primer I tested with just does not look right, unless the track is in a cement plant (which we will have on the layout..so there's a use for it). Scalecoat paint will not eat the plastic and probably not the foam either, but I don't think they make nice 'weathering' colors lile Floquil.

--Randy

[Anonymous]

I would paint the track after it is laid on the roadbed. If you are dropping feeder wires through the foam for DCC operation, you will want to solder them to the track first and paint the entire track and roadbed system at the same time. It is senseless to do it twice. One of MR's books describes using a combination of Krylon Ruddy Brown, Ultra Flat Black and Gray Primer. Start with the Ruddy Brown to paint the sides and top of the rails. This is then followed with black and then gray to weather the ties. I used these materials with great success when weathering my track. Foam degredation is minimal to none when the paint is sprayed in light coats. Make sure you use a 3 in 1 oil or a electric hair clipper oil to coat the tops of the rails prior to painting. This is best applied with a foam brush. Regardless of what painting technique you use. make sure you coat the rails and and the turnout points where they come in contact with the side rails. I forgot to this on my first layout and spent considerable elbow grease removing it from the rails.

[canazar]

On the layout I am building now, I used the gray primer trick again and the also did the spray with the textured spray paint. It was the Krylon's Make it Stone series. It came out great. (here is a link)
http://community.webshots.com/photo/328025103/338791591kwHWrh

With me, I looked for an easy short cut since this layout will be turn down too like the toerh when we move so I dotn want to ballast the tracks. Makesit a pain to rip out 300 feet of track with ballast on it.

The paint comes in different colors so you can easliy change the ballast look. Another nice thing, one can will go a LONG way. I put al my pieces down and lifted the can about 24-36" away fromt he track and just did light spray pattern. ot only took a few squirts.

This coudl work great if you ar ein the same boat, or know that it is goign to be awhile befoe you ballast and dont want to look at bare cork.

Best Regards
John

[jawnt]

Go to your friendly Walmart / Home Depot / Lowes, pick a color of latex interior flat paint that suits, buy a quart or gallon -- thin sufficiently to work in an air brush and have fun. Latex paints are water soluble. If you buy by the quart or gallon, they will usually mix whatever shade you want.

John T. (Cheap skate in the cow pasture)

[JBCA]

Thanks everyone, lots of good ideas.

BTW . . . we finally! got operational today, track on cork on plywood, but at least we can play!

Jim

[canazar]

Hey congrats on gettng opertional. No turning back now wuhaahaaa[:D]

[roadrat]

Thanks for all the input everybody, canazar that roadbed looks great!

Bill