Track weathering
This might be a controversial subject, but here goes….. Peco N gauge track just looks too shiny shiny and unrealistic straight out of the box. So I have decided I want to weather it prior to laying it rails and sleepers. I have off cuts to practise on but wondered what tips anyone had. My first attempt was Humbrol rust coloured enamel paint and that was too rusty in colour, Matt black didn’t look right, I then got a half decent result by thinning down the matt black 50/50 and washing it over the rust layer ? Any help and guidance would be greatly appreciated. Chris
Hi Chris, For the rails i use Woodland Scenics TidyTrack Rail paint pens. They do three different ones in the following colours: Steel Rail colour (which i use on my mainline), Rusty Rail colour (which i use on the sidings & branchline). The last one is for the Sleepers. Quick & easy to use. For the ballast i’ve used an track dirt colour using Model Mates weathering liquid solutions, they do or did ones for mainline track dirt, siding track dirt as well as others.
I lay the track and ballast it. Then using an airbrush with acrylic paints weather it. First the rails (protect areas of the points that need to conduct electricity with masking tape) Wipe off the surface of the rails before it dries if possible. Use a dirty colour mixture of rusty rails and grime. Spray ballast and sleepers with dirt and grime colours. Then finally a little darker grime down the centre of the track. Clean the rail surface to make it nice and shiny. Done.