For straws, that can represent the fairly large pipe that you often see painted black. In the past, it was often cast iron, but is now often plastic, etc. I have good luck with Krylon Flat or Satin Black.
Drill strings and other oil field piping is usually smaller than what a straw would be, as they're mostly less than 6" diameter. I have some light aluminum pipe I painted black to represent that. Brass pipe will work, but gets heavy fast.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
Actually, I've been looking for the same kind of info. Specifically, I'm wondering about well casings that were sent from Youngstown Sheet & Tube in Youngstown, Ohio to the oil fields of the southwest in the 1950's. Length and diameter of typical pipe sections would be good to have, plus color of the pipes, typical loading and securing practices, etc. Information on the freight cars used, routing, and final destination would be great to have.
I don't want to hijack wdcrvr's thread here, but thought the answers to his questions and mine might be complementary.
I want to use platic straws to model a load of pipe on a flat car. Looking for ideas of how to paint the straws, color to use, etc.
thanks
wdcrvr