Remember, many turntables (The majority?) did not have concrete pits like the Walthers turntable, for example. They had cinders over earth for the floor of the pit. Concrete is expensive and may heave in winter. Cinders are free and the earth is there anyway.
Here's and early construction photo of what I've done with my Walthers 90ft turntable: -
Cheers
Roger T.
Home of the late Great Eastern Railway see: - http://www.greateasternrailway.com
For more photos of the late GER see: - http://s94.photobucket.com/albums/l99/rogertra/Great_Eastern/
You're getting a lot of good responses here as usual, Loathar, so my 2 cents is probably not needed. However... Yes, the Floquil Aged Concrete is a good shade, looks a lot like that creamy shade you get after concrete has aged a few years. The rust streaks beneath the rail ends were present in every TT pit I ever saw, and shows up in most pictures, color or not. I've also seen a lot of pit walls with large patches where dirty oil ran down from above, but this may depend upon how crowded the site is. Hint: in steam days, there were almost always dirty oil stains on the ground, walks, floors---you name it. Then there were also stains from coal, soot, and ashes that washed down vertical or near-vertical surfaces; railroading was a lot dirtier in those days! And don't forget, turntables were almost unanimously leftovers from the Steam Age. (I'm sure some of you know of instances where they were installed long after Steam was gone, so let's hear about them!)
Since turntables go back to the steam era they predate any environmental rules. Lubrication was used extensively on bearings and any moving part. The area near the pit rail should approach a grease color with streaks into the pit as should the area around the center bearing. I have seen pictures of turntables with a small amount of water in the bottom also plus debris but not a lot. Possibly some vegetation growing from cracks in the concrete like grass or other smal shrubs. Again, don't overdo it. Pits are pits. Anything that can seek a lowest level will and did (including engines!)
The Polly's Aged Concrete looks good to me. I use both their Concrete and Aged Concrete colors for roads, concrete bridge parts, and other concrete things. The first thing I do after painting it on and letting it dry is paint a black wash over it. That alone tones it down considerably. Then I add other weathering and cracks as needed for the item it represents.
Sometimes when I am painting a concrete road, I will add in another color as I go, to tint the concrete another shade either lighter or darker so the road will have some variation. Sometimes I will do that in blocks and then draw a line with an extra fine marker to divide off the sections so it looks like it was poured at different times. But always a black wash over it after painting.
Elmer.
The above is my opinion, from an active and experienced Model Railroader in N scale and HO since 1961.
(Modeling Freelance, Eastern US, HO scale, in 1962, with NCE DCC for locomotive control and a stand alone LocoNet for block detection and signals.) http://waynes-trains.com/ at home, and N scale at the Club.
Hello I have that TT and I have the atlas roundhouse I used age concrete and weather it had to redo my rust stains they were to big but I like the way it turned out here are some pics the first one shows my redone rust the pit looks really dark its just a shadow. hope this helps Frank
Yeah, I'm just looking a descent aged base color for the pit. (and my sidewalks.) I know I'll have a bunch of weathering to do.
Loathar, I can no longer remember what the colour is of the unpainted styrene for the pit. But, if I were not keen to go looking for the perfect commercial mixture for modelling aged concrete, I would first lightly prime the pit a light grey colour, and then proceed to use light cream and grey as an overcoat. Then I would weather with dark washes or dry brush to get rust streaks. The pit bottom will be quite dirty, even muddy or have pools of oily water. On the other hand, depending on local climate and the practices of the parent railroad, it may have accumulated dirt and lots of weeds.
The point, though, is that I get a lot of what I call success (other opinions count in their host's heads) with plain old craft acrylic paints. Takes some practice, that's all.
-Crandell
Building my Walther's 90' TT kit and was wondering what you all used for a concrete pit color. I've got some Polly Scale concrete but don't like it. I'm looking for that old, yellowish concrete color. I've never seen the Floquil aged concrete in person. Is this realistic looking at all?PS-Someone posted about the high price of Floquil/Polly paints. Wholesale Trains has 1oz bottles for $3.30/$3.67. They don't stock them, but I called and they said they are available in about 3-5 days. Well worth the wait if your ordering a dozen bottles like I am.PPS-I don't see what all the complaints are about this TT kit???Mine is going together very nicely. One part of the pit slightly scuffed the bridge, but about 5 minutes with a piece of sand paper on the bottom end of the bridge and it rotates very smoothly. Haven't got to the motor part yet though.Still have to decide if I'm going to raise my pit to match to match my Atlas round house or lower the round house. The Atlas comes with a raised foundation to match their 9" TT and roadbed height. I may just use some cork squares and raise the whole area up to match. I think that might be easier than making a new foundation for the round house.