Track painting in DuBach

This weekend I was able to get the raw ceiling tile painted after trimming the cork.   Once dried I got after getting the track painted.

The first thing that I always do before applying paint is to protect the turnouts and points from getting covered in paint.  A lot of folks will lay a strip of tape over them, but I go at it via a different route.

I took a small piece of napkin, rolled it between my fingers until it was just big enough that I could pack it in between the point rail and the stock rail. This should keep the paint off both surfaces. This also held the opposite side tightly closed so that no paint could get on their surfaces either.

I also took a small drop of oil and placed it in the joints of the switch points where they hinge on the PECO turnouts, my thought was this would keep the paint from insulating the switch points which has worked very well in the past. Please forgive me, by the time I got the picture snapped the oil had puddled. You only need a small drop.

Once the prep work was done it was time to paint.  This time though, instead of using Krylon Camo Brown and two other Rattle cans of light colors that I had used before, I chose to give some acrylic paints a chance to shine this time.  The last time that I painted the tracks between Ruston and Winnfield, the fumes did get a little strong and I had no way to vent them outside.  It wasn't a fog, but the fumes were kind of strong, that was in Feb I do believe.

Now this time it was April and a bit warmer, but the look on the wife's face from the last painting episode I decided to invest in a new airbrush and give acrylics a try, and to save a marriage, although I must say that she is pretty supportive of me and my endeavors.

I chose to use Tamiya paints this time around as they seemed to work pretty good when I sprayed the Ouachita River a while back.  I chose three colors of brown for this.

XF-10 Flat Brown, XF-68 NATO Brown and Boomer's favorite color: XF-52 Flat Earth!

The XF-10 Flat Brown was a little too red when I first applied so I added some black, but it moved a little too much, so I added more of the flat brown to bring the brown back out a bit.  I also thinned it roughly 50/50 with 70% alcohol, this worked out good.

Then I got the mainline, passing siding and one of the spurs painted.  The other four spurs will get painted once I get the buildings built and see how they'll fit, at that point I can adjust the spurs to fit and they'll get painted.

Next I switched to the XF-68, thinned it then shot the tracks by sweeping the airbrush back and forth across the tracks, randomly painting only part of the ties.

For the final color I switched to the XF-52.  I was afraid it would be too light?  But it turned out quite well so I continued onward.  With this color I sprayed the tracks the same as I did with the intermediate color but did not spray as many ties, hoping to get a very random effect.  Now on the one spur for Cajun Hydraulics, I did cover that spur with more XF-52 to simulate a more dirty and unkept appearance, which is what I'll do when I paint the other spurs.

To be honest, while it looks OK now, by the time the ballast gets applied and I get it weathered with Pan Pastels and apply some burnt umber pigment, most of this will probably just blend into one basic track color.  If this was a larger scale, I'm sure it would stand out a bit more.

But hey, at least I didn't just leave it as a nasty-ass, factory plastic with bright shiny rails...  

Next up, everyone's favorite:  Ballasting!