I'm close to completing HO trackage on my layout and will soon want to airbrush (which will be a learning experience). A few questions:
1. I will sometimes clean track with denatured alcohol using CMX car. Should I use non-acrylic paints such as Floquil so alcohol can not attack the paint? Or is acrylic such a Polyscale ok with repeated alcohol cleanings?
2. After some reading, my bias is to use rail brown plus some rust targeting the rails plus railroad tie brown on ties, with perhaps some gray misting for yard ties.
3. Since it will be my first airbrush try (bought a Paasche VL dual action) I will do a bit of airbrush practice. One curiosity is how long airbrush can sit during a pause without starting to get clogged up, for thinner based or acrylics. Is it seconds, minutes?? I won't want to paint the whole layout w/o stopping, so how long can I pause before having to run solvent through or cleaning?
4. My usual vendors (MBKlein & Walthers) seem not to have all the paints I might want in stock. Another paint supplier you can recommend? (EDIT: I see the Testors website offerd them all).
5. Will a 1-oz bottle of each be plenty for my 5' x 10' layout, roughly 100' HO trackage? Or should I order 2 or rail brown & tie brown?
All comments are welcome. Thanks.
Paul
Modeling HO with a transition era UP bent
1. The cleaning car pad should only be damp, not drenched and as it only touches the top of the rails shouldn't affect the sides of the rails. I have never had a problem with this and I have used laquer thinner and now use CRC 2-26 which, in addition to cleaning the rails also conditions them and cuts the cleaning down to once or twice a year. My tracks are painted with custom mixes of colors from both Polyscale and Modelflex. You could also use craft paint from Walmart, (you do have to thin it to the consistancy of 2% milk, so a bottle goes a long way and it's a lot cheaper than model paint).
2.Go out and take a look at some real track, take some pix. You'll see that the color varies and so it's not that critical what actual colors you use. As I mentioned above, I also use acrylic craft paint and I'll usually mix up three batches of colors and switch back and forth to vary the colors blending them along the way.
3. You can let the airbrush sit for a couple of minutes, but not much longer. However, with the VL it's very easy to rinse the brush inbetween applications. Keep a bowl or a distilled jug of water near where you're painting, take off the paint jar or paint cup (which I prefer), pull the long pin and then with the bowl of water, submerge the brush and run some water thru it until it runs clear, pull it out and sray until all you get is air, rinse off the pin and your ready to take a break. This takes about 30 seconds. As long as you do this before the paint has a chance to dry, the brush will be clean. You do not have to completely disassemble the brush every time you stop. As I said, as long as you do the rinse right after you stop painting (just as you would if you were changing colors), the brush will be clean. Somestimes there will be some dried paint buildup at the tip, just use a cotton swab dipped in alcohol to wipe it clean. At the end of the day you can disassemble the brush and clean it, as a custom painter I paint several times a day every day, so I only do the deep cleaning once a month or if I let it sit too long. Oh, I almost forgot, get some pipe cleaners for cleaning out the pin tube, dip the pipe cleaner in some alcohol. I usually leave it in the tube until I'm ready to paint again, (the trigger can fall out easily and is a real PIA to get back in, the pipe cleaner keeps the trigger in place until you're ready to go again).
4. The price from Testors or Modelflex directly is the same as in stores as they are usually not discountefrom hobby stores (even on line). There may be a difference in postage though, so it usually pays to order a 6-pack at a time. Like I said before try some of the craft paints, they're much cheaper and work just as well (Brand names like Creamcoat & Applebarrel) and can be mixed with the MR paints for custom colors.
5. I cerntainly would double up, if you don't use it all, there'll be plenty of uses for those colors down the road.
This will be good practice for learning airbrushing tecniques. Feel free to ask if you need to.
Custom painter for 30 years.
Jay
C-415 Build: https://imageshack.com/a/tShC/1
Other builds: https://imageshack.com/my/albums
Thanks for the thorough comments and tips!
I painted all my rail with a brush, using Floquil "Rust". Only took an evening to do all the rail. Just covering the bright and shiny nickel silver rail with paint made a great improvement in looks of the layout.
David Starr www.newsnorthwoods.blogspot.com
When I painted my rails I used the Lowe's Valspar Latex Enamel Rust color. I used a brush and foam brushes. In addition I ran some rust mixed with black to simulate a oily residue down the center of the tracks from the early diesels. Here is a example.
Curt Webb
The Late Great Pennsylvania Railroad
http://s1082.photobucket.com/albums/j372/curtwbb/
I'll vote for brush-painting the rails, too. It's quick, easy to do, with very little clean-up (allowing you to paint any time you have 5 or 10 minutes of idle time). Added benefits include no overspray, which either lands and dries on something that you didn't want painted or dries before it lands on anything, becoming dust with which you'll be contending every time you try to run a train. I'd also think that it would be difficult to paint the normally unseen side of the rails using an airbrush, as the airbrusher is apt to become the airbrushee. You may not feel that part of the painting to be necessary, but a digital camera opens up a lot of possibilities to "see" things not normally visible.
Wayne
I'm on my first layout and after laying most of the track I weathered it using rail and or roof brown. I was really surprised at how much better the layout looked . Before the shinny rails were dominating the scene.
Here's a picture of prototype weathering.
I use both a brush and a Rusty Rails paint roller.
Bob
Don't Ever Give Up
As a follow up on Curt's mention of painting the ties between the rails with a touch of black, I've noticed this on several layouts, particularly George Sellios' Franklin & South Manchester where the effect is quite noticable.
For steam era track, I presume this was due to loco lube oils and coal hopper leakage, but I'm wondering about how much would be too much, even for a coal hauler.
Any thoughts?
Jim
What I did was paint a piece of waste track and mess around with it until I liked the appearance. I did the same thing when I was getting ready to ballast for the first time. I really believe beauty is in the eye of the beholder and in this case the owner of the layout.
Curt, I apologize if I sounded critical. I did not mean to imply that yours was over done, to the contrary, I think its a realistic effect.
On George Sellios' layout the center of the track - ties and ballast, is considerably darker, (and his style of weathering has sometimes been described as being purposely exaggerated) so I was seeking opinions on how this compares to the real thing.
No issues Jim. I did not take offense. All I can suggest is look at as many photos (or real life track) as possible and then decide what you want to do.
I uses Foquil pens (roof brown, and rust. I thought my track turned out nice.
Being out of MR for about 13 years, When I came back I was stunned to see painted rail! I loved it!
Being in HOn3, and as most narrow gauge track was poor to terrible in real life, painting seemed a very natural thing to do. I painted all my rail in rust color and then tend to use tarnished black and brown washes (ultra thinned) to break up the uniformity. So far, I have used a thin brush for all the work. Tedious work but visually rewarding when completed.
Richard
If I can't fix it, I can fix it so it can't be fixed
narrow gauge nuclear ......So far, I have used a thin brush for all the work. Tedious work but visually rewarding when completed.
......So far, I have used a thin brush for all the work. Tedious work but visually rewarding when completed.
Richard, the only reason that the work is tedious is because of your use of a thin brush. I use a 1/2" flat, chisel-type brush with reasonably stiff bristles. It's easy to place the paint precisely where you want it, but you don't need to refill the brush so often. The stiffer bristles allow you to easily work the paint around the mould-on spike heads and the tie plates. I use PollyScale paint and generally do 10'-15' of track (both sides of both rails) in a few minutes, then use a dry rag to wipe the dried (but not-yet-cured) paint from the tops of the rails. Turnouts, of course, take a little longer. Once a painting session is done, I let the paint harden for at least 24 hours before running trains.
Painting rail and ballasting are both simple tasks and both offer probably more visual "bang for your buck" than just about anything that we can do on our layouts.
Revisiting a couple of the OP's points:
For ordering paints, try Mega Hobby (www.megahobby.com). I only use acrylics, but they have all the PollyScale and Modelmaster paints I need. Don't forget that a lot of the Pollyscale general and military colors have been discontinued because they duplicated Testors colors. Pollyscale RR colors are still in production. If you really must have everything, Megahobby will let you order a full set (one of each color) of the ModelMaster line.... for about $700!
For the airbrush (although FWIW, I agree that a brush is the better tool for painting the rails (although NOT weathering ties), invest in a cleaning station. Every time you finish with a color, shoot a cupful of solvent (in my case, soapy water for acrylics) through the brush into the cleaning station. Then you can leave it for a little while -- long enough for a bathroom or food break -- without worrying. If you do get gunked up acrylics in your brush, old fashioned blue window cleaner (brand name Windex, the kind with ammonia in it) will strip acrylic paint in a heartbeat.
Connecticut Valley Railroad A Branch of the New York, New Haven, and Hartford
"If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right." -- Henry Ford
I have a garage size layout. I used Floquil Roof Brown in the 3oz can and sprayed all my rails. This beats using an airbrush and did my entire layout with about 15 cans. I put a piece of strip wood between the points on the turnouts as I sprayed to prevent sticking. I clean my tops of the rails with a light 320 grit sand block before the paint dries. I use Goo Gone to clean my track with a rag after that. Make sure and where a mask and have adequate ventillation. As far as the rust on the rails wait until after you have ballast down because the rust should be part of the ballast covering as well. You can weather the ties with chalks so it has more variation of color
SAL - Welcome to trains.com!
Darren (BLHS & CRRM Lifetime Member)
Delaware and Hudson Virtual Museum (DHVM), Railroad Adventures (RRAdventures)
My Blog
The last time I painted track I dry-brushed it using Polly S. Worked well, was fast and easy. Give it a try on a small section.