How Do You Guys Weather Your Track?

[Exit109GTI]

I layed a single 5" straight piece of atlas track, and roadbed last night on a piece of foam. Then I did a little practive ballast and was shocked at how horrible such bright shinny rails, and black ties look with the ballast.

How do you guys do your track weathering?

I was thinking about airbrushing the whole thing with a light mix of acrylic brown paint, wiping or sanding the top back to silver, and then ballasting over the top.

 

[CBCNSfan]

Well since I already had the track and ballast down I had no intention of doing any weathering until I see a post here on this forum by hminky (Harold) that looked so good I just had to attempt doing it. I hand painted large areas by hand, the rails what I thought to be a rust color and the ties an off white I had, and followed up with an india ink wash. Not as good as Harold's but I'm happy with it. Oh! BTW I used craft paints.
Cheers Willis
Click on the Thumbnail for a bigger picture

 

[hminky]

Looks good Willis,

My track weathering web article is at:

http://www.pacificcoastairlinerr.com/4x8/weathered_track/

Thank you if you visit
Harold

 

[CBCNSfan]

Hmmm! I think I need a little more ink
Cheers!! Willis

 

[grande man]

I use Micro Engineering solution to weather track. First remove the rails from flex track and then follow the instructions on the bottle. Good stuff. Sometimes Floquil Rail Brown is used in certain areas. I prefer Code 83 track in HO due to it's fine scale tie color and size. It's much more realistic looking than Code 100, IMHO (and we have both).

Here's how it looks when completed.