Ballast and painting track

[barney121e]

Just wondering if people ballast first and then paint sleepers and rails or do you do it the other way around?

 

Cheers

[whart57]

Paint rails first, then sleepers, finally ballast.

[Right Away]

Both.

I lay new track and give it an all over “base” colour, followed by ballasting, finally selectively spraying (with airbrush) to represent the build up of differing levels of grime, brake dust etc where appropriate. I gently clean rail heads between each process to avoid a thick build up of paint and adhesive at the end.

Reference to good quality colour photographs can be helpful in achieving your final result but beware of any colour cast which can give an inappropriate tint.

Edited February 29 by Right Away
correction

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

Plain track ballasted and then 'filthed' in situ. But pointwork now, that's 'filthed' before being placed on the layout. It's so much easier to get at all the rail sides when it can be approached from all sides: and also then inspected, cleaned up if necessary, then tested to make sure it's 'all good'.

[dasatcopthorne]

I think it depends on the finish you require. Find some pictures of the track you want.

 

Newish ballast, then paint track first bearing in mind if you want weathered sleepers or not. Rail is always rusty or gone even darker. Then some slight weathering of your ballast.

 

If you want older dirty ballast and track, then weather down the whole track, ballast and then weather again with more or less the same colour.

 

Dave.

 

[DCB]

10 hours ago, dasatcopthorne said:

. Find some pictures of the track you want.

Dave.

 

Could not agree more.  Look at pictures.   Steam age track ballast 1920 -1968 was basically manicured  with crisp ballast edges and clear walking routes , cinder paths, much of it with signal wires alongside.   Usually  with plenty of gap between ballast edge and the edge of an embankment. Post steam it became a scruffy mess as tracks were raised on heaps of ballast which spilled down embankment sides and post 2000 plenty disappeared into a mass of weeds.
A lot of model ballast looks out of period, 2000 ballast on 1950 layouts..
Painting the rails first makes sense, but pre coloured sleepers don't usually need much if any paint, maybe just touching up where the rail paint has smeared and then use the right colour ballast.  If you use the wrong glue it will sound like a steam roller is crushing the track and you will wish you had not bothered. Do a trial stretch first

Edited February 29 by DCB

[fulton]

Similar to above, I paint sleepers first, the rails/chairs then ballast, I try to "plant" things like point rodding bases then ballast around them, to try to get away from the stuck on afterwards look, in this picture have used block paving sand to represent Dungeness beach shingle, favoured by the SECR.

[Moley48]

Try on a small section to see if you can come up with a method and style that suits you. 

 

Do you plan to add Lighting above the layout at any point? One lesson I learnt was to get my lighting set as there is a night and day difference 😉 between just the room incandescent/ambient lighting and dedicated (focused) light strips over the track. 

 

Definitely study photos.  I always look for inspiration from the real world. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[wombatofludham]

I used Posca paint pens with a fine nib to paint the rail webs before laying and ballasting (using wallpaper paste mixed with the ballast to fix but allow for removal at a later date unlike PVA which sets like concrete) then when dry used a mix of paint pigments to weather the ballast and sleepers in situ using a paint brush to dry brush the neat pigment on.  I tended to brush away from the rails on the outside, and along the rails inside the track.  I used umber paint pigment for brake/poo dust and charcoal pigment for oilier areas, such as at signals.  By brushing away from the rail on the ballast shoulders you get an effective fade effect where in real life the brake dust and poo aerosol from the lavatories would get less the further you were from the track.

I didn't fix the pigment in place as I wouldn't be handling the track whereas when I use pigment for weathering rolling stock I fix with artist fixative to allow for handling.  I find the neat paint pigment gives a lovely, dusty finish and you can vary the tones by doing multiple passes to give a variation.