Games Workshop paints on track

[aardvark]

Hey all:

 

Has anyone tried using Games Workshop/Citadel paints on sleepers and/or rails?

[Enterprisingwestern]

Yes.

 

Mike.

[aardvark]

Yes.

 

Mike.

 

Well, I suppose you did answer my question.

 

From the brevity of your response, I must presume that it was all plain sailing and that you experienced no particular problems and have no special tips or tricks to share.  If so, that would be sufficient basis for this beginner to dive in and have a go.

[Enterprisingwestern]

Well, I suppose you did answer my question.

 

From the brevity of your response, I must presume that it was all plain sailing and that you experienced no particular problems and have no special tips or tricks to share.  If so, that would be sufficient basis for this beginner to dive in and have a go.

 

Yes!!!!!!!

 

But seriously, as much as I would like to leave a one word answer for comic effect, GW paints are a good quality product. Ignore the weird and wonderful names on the pots and pick colours that look right, in the range there are many rust/weathering colours, and some of my rolling stock is painted in various iterations of GW greys and yellows. Chaos Black and Skull White rattle cans are two base colours which can be used to good effect as undercoats. They dilute nicely for air brushing too.

 

Mike.

 

Mike.

[Karhedron]

I also agree that GW do a very high quality range of acrylics. I had established a decent mapping between several colours and GWR/WR colours. Unfortunately they updated their range a few years ago and the new shades do not match the old one 1:1.

 

But for a lot of weathering and scenic work, they are excellent. If you are looking to paint straight over sleepers and rail sides, you will need to look at their "Base" range (which effectively act as coloured primers as they adhere well and are very thick with pigment). Steel Legion Drab is a very good dull earthy colour while Rhinox Hide is a more burnt umber.

 

[Enterprisingwestern]

I also agree that GW do a very high quality range of acrylics. I had established a decent mapping between several colours and GWR/WR colours. Unfortunately they updated their range a few years ago and the new shades do not match the old one 1:1.

 

But for a lot of weathering and scenic work, they are excellent. If you are looking to paint straight over sleepers and rail sides, you will need to look at their "Base" range (which effectively act as coloured primers as they adhere well and are very thick with pigment). Steel Legion Drab is a very good dull earthy colour while Rhinox Hide is a more burnt umber.

 

 

Yes. it was a bit of a b*gger when they arbitrarily changed all the shades and names without asking railway modellers!

I find, especially for rolling stock, that once weathering is liberally applied the accuracy of the base colour becomes less important, but for clean/ex works stock it is a bit more of an issue.

 

Mike.

[aardvark]

Many thanks gents.  You have given me the courage to have a go.

 

For me, one of the attractions to GW paints is that they have a free phone app which allows you to pick a colour from an image to reproduce, then the app provides the user with three close approximations to the target colour.  Just prefect for this beginner who is pretty hopeless with colours. 

 

Edit: translate gibberish to English.

Edited March 21, 2018 by aardvark

[aardvark]

Another advantage of GW paints is that many (most? all?) GW shops have paint tables where you can experiment with their paints at no cost.

 

I took a trip to my "local" GW shop today (1hr drive each way), and tried my hand at painting some C&L track.

 

 

No need to be kind - I can see it's a bit sh!te, but, all things considered, not that bad for my first attempt at painting anything smaller than a bedroom wall..  I think that the sleepers and the sandy colour on the rails are ok (Baneblade Brown), but there is too way much red.

 

I'm open to suggestions: here's what the prototype looked like: