Painting Code 75 Rail

[GNRi1959]

What is the most effective and preferred method to paint rails to achieve a rust finish - hand painting or marker?

[irishthump]

Prefer hand painting myself. A mixture of Humbrol matt leather and black looks really good.

on my layout I painted all the track and points by hand before I layed it. Just need to be sure to leave unpainted spots on the rails for soldering on the track feeders, it’s a pain to remove when it’s stuck down!

[David Holman]

As above, but with Humbrol 53, gunmetal as well. Study photos, as rails vary according to location: oily where locos stop (and on fishplates),  more rusty (because of brake dust) where trains slow and stop, darker in sidings etc. I do much of the above with weathering powders. 

 If you can get it, a spray can of track colour (Humbrol or Precision), makes painting sleepers easier. Weathering powders and/or airbrush good for local colour as for rails.

 Colourpoint books great for fine track details.

[GNRi1959]

Acrylic based I presume?

 

[Noel]

Good advice above.  For work minimisation I weathered track, ballast and rail sides using airbrush with railmatch acrylic sleeper grime colour. Light dusting over track and ballast in three passes, then one pass each side of each rail with narrow nozzle to dull the rail sides.  Then wipe paint off the top of rails while still wet using a tiny patch of cloth wrapped around index finger.

[WRENNEIRE]

Prefer the middle finger myself Noel  

[David Holman]

Most of my stuff is with enamels, but if you have one, the airbrush method is best. Quicker and doesn't ruin your brushes 

[GNRi1959]

20 hours ago, Noel said:

Good advice above.  For work minimisation I weathered track, ballast and rail sides using airbrush with railmatch acrylic sleeper grime colour. Light dusting over track and ballast in three passes, then one pass each side of each rail with narrow nozzle to dull the rail sides.  Then wipe paint off the top of rails while still wet using a tiny patch of cloth wrapped around index finger.

Noel, thanks for this. From memory your photos were quite impressive. Any advice on the purchase of a spray gun?

[Noel]

4 hours ago, GNRi1959 said:

Any advice on the purchase of a spray gun?

Hi Tony

Few links below for you to browse through . I pretty much followed @Glenderg‘s and others good advice and went for a Veda airbrush and a TC88 compressor. Acrylic paints (Vallejo, Railmatch and Tamiya).  I appreciated their advice and it worked out for me. I think BartSharp have since commissioned their own Veda lookalike airbrush range.  Loads of great YouTube videos on how to learn an airbrush with models. I was fortunate to see a great demo by Richie some years ago. The first thing I risked airbrushing was ballasted track for weathering purposes. 

http://irishrailwaymodeller.com/topic/468-what-air-brush/

http://irishrailwaymodeller.com/topic/3599-good-air-brush-kit-to-buy/

http://irishrailwaymodeller.com/topic/1305-what-paint-for-what-airbrush-thread/

A few old pics below of gear.  Have a good read of the links above  

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 24, 2018 by Noel

[GNRi1959]

Thanks Noel, looks god. What ballast type did you use?