How To Weather Model Railway Track

A Look At Track Weathering

(Paint Brush & Aerosol Can Spray Paint Method)

 

In this article we take a look at weathering your model railway layout trackwork, a beginners guide using nothing more than paint brushes & modelling aerosol can spray paint. There are various other methods of weathering your trackwork such as using an painting airbrush which gives great results. However for beginners we’ll be using the brush & aerosol paint method.

So what do i need? For the tools you’ll need a couple of paint brushes. one small one & a medium sized one, i’m using the flat type paint brushes). Modelling masking tape, a track rubber or old cloth for wiping the rails clean. For the paint it’s down to personal choice depending on what weathering look you are wanting for your trackwork. This could be a heavily used look or a lighter weathered used look. Have a look at the real thing to give you idea’s on how you want your weather track to look.

The paints i’m using for this article are as follows:

• Humbrol spray paint (normally i go for a earth dirt colour but as the local model shop was out of stock i’ve settled upon a light sandy brown colour as they didn’t have much choice in stock)
• Woodland Scenics TrackTidy Steel Rail colour paint pen
• Humbrol Gloss Oil weathering liquid enamel paint
• Humbrol Sandy/Dusty weathering liquid enamel paint
• Revell Aqua Colours Black paint
• Revell Paint Thinners
• ModelMates Sooty Black liquid weathering solution

 

Again it’s down to personal choice as to which paints & weathering paints / powders you use. Experiment to see what will & won’t work for you.

 

 

 

 

Lets begin…

First mask the rail tops using the modelling masking tape. You don’t have to do this but helps keep the rail tops clear of any paint during spray painting.

So here you see our demo piece masked taped up. Ideally could do with using some thinner masking tape than the one you see here.

Now it’s time to spray paint the ballast & track. Make sure you have good ventilation & preferably wear a suitable face mask to prevent breathing in the paint fumes. Follow the instructions on the spray can. Shake the can for at least several minutes.

From a height of around 15cm to 20cm make several light passes with the spray can over your track work. Try not to keep the can focused to long on any one spot.

Here you see the track after a couple of passes with the spray paint can.

Now remove the masking tape from the rails.

Now run the track rubber along the rail head to remove any paint over spray.

On point work remove any paint from the ends of the outside of the switch rails & any switch rail contact points.

For painting of the sides of rails i use a Woodland Scenics TrackTidy Rail Painting Pen. This one is the steel rail colour. Woodland Scenics also do one in a rusty rail colour as well as one for painting trackwork sleepers.

Steel Rail TrackTidy Paint Pen

 

Rusty Rail TrackTidy Paint Pen

Again run the track rubber along the railhead to remove any paint off the top & inside of the railhead.

 

The Rail Paint Pen paint dries very quick. So as you can see after a few mins after applying the to the rail sides.

 

Again as shown here make sure you remove any paint from the outside ends of the switch rails, as well as the bits the switch rails make contact with on the outer rails.

 

After cleaning the railheads your rails should look something like in the photo on the right.

 

Oil Spills & Oily Track

Where loco’s normally stand for some time such as in depots, stabling points etc, the ballast & track often gets very dirty. Often it can get very oily, sooty etc. So to add a bit of variety to the weathering we’ll create the impression that locos have been stood at the end of our demo track. So first of all i brush on some Revell Aqua Colours black paint in between the rails.

 

I’ve only gone over part of the track with the black paint so as to create one area of oily track.

 

Now using the Humbrol Dusty/Sandy Weathering Wash paint, i brush some along the inside sleeper chairs & edge of the black paint as seen on the right.

 

To tone down any areas that may of had to much spray paint using the paint brush, work some thinners on to the area. As seen on the right i’ve purposely over sprayed paint on one area to show you this. And so thinning down the over spray paint.

Next apply some Humbrol Gloss Oil Weathering Wash Paint over the area you’ve painted black. Build up the layers of oil spill paint to achieve the effect of a heavy oil spill.

Here i’m adding second layer of Humbrol Oil Spill Wash over the first layer already applied.

I now turn attention to the sleeper ends. Using the Modelmates Liquid Sooty Weathering Solution, i brush some along the edge of the sleepers as well as some in the centre of the track. This Modelmates Liquid Sooty Weathering Solution can be thinned down or more added to achieve the look your after. It dries to an opaque finish.

Next wipe clean any paint off the rail heads. And that’s it job done. Experiment to see what works or doesn’t work for you, but a above all have ago it’s all good fun. In the photo on the right you can see the far end with where the locos have been stood. On the near end where locos have been moving.

In this photo shows the point work. Note that the contact tab on the switch rail has been cleaned of any over spray & paint.

In this photo shows the 2nd coat of gloss oil wash now dried. thus giving an impression of an oil spill.

To finish is two images off my own layout. The top one showing track work on a loco stabling point with oily track where the locos have been stood. Note that i’ve used the Woodland Scenics Rusty Rail Paint Pen on the rails of this section. The photo below right shows the branchline  with weathering.

 

If you’ve never done track weathering before, try practising on a test piece of track work to test out various methods, paints, & weathering powders. Look at the real thing to get ideas on how you’d like to weather your track.

 

Happy weathering.