Weathering/finishing track on a Viaduct station/Slab track

[rankodd]

Quick question...

 

How does one weather Kato slab track? It's not ballasted - it's unfinished, bare cement.

 

Same thing for Kato's viaduct station. They designed it for use with the regular single track unitrack - is the track on top of the station itself ballasted?

 

Thanks!

[cteno4]

might try some weathering powders. i have seen is a bit of darker grime down the center and at times some rust stains from track clips. going to be tough on the styrene surface. i guess you could try masking the center off and some light air brushing as well.

 

you can color the track sides some if you want with a floquil paint markers easily.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[Bernard]

I airbrush rail rust on the rails while using masking tape to block out the areas I don't want to get rust paint on.

After the rails dry, mask them off and use weathering paint in the center cement sections between the rails to simulate oil and grime that comes from underneath the train. Please post photos when you start your weathering and have fun!

[rankodd]

Ugh. Something tells me I should have ordered some extra track pieces to experiment on :( Plus, my airbrush skills are infantile at best. It's going to be a risky endeavour....

[Bernard]

You don't have to airbrush if you don't want to, there have been some excellent results here at the forum by members who chose to hand paint the rails a rust color and you can do the same with the "grit" between the rails.

The most important thing is that you have fun!

[cteno4]

I agree with bernard, my airbrushing skills are very rusty as i have done it in spurts over the years so just when i get good i tend to then not do it for a long time, go figure. try the markers, they are really easy to use and pretty controllable.

 

the weathering powders are pretty simple to play with and you can wash them off if you dont like the results! you can get some nice results with some pretty simple techniques.

 

also on the weathering powders, make-up applicators work well with these. you can get them cheap at your dollar store or on ebay.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[rankodd]

I've never really seen the weathering powders for sale, so I don't know much about them.

 

Theoretically, I went to a lot of trouble to get the airbrush up and working in the first place, so I'm quite inclined to give that a go. I'll play with weathering some standard track and see how that goes. I presume I would ballast first, though?

 

Thanks for the help, guys! :)

[KenS]

Actually if you want a dark color on the rails/ties, and a lighter or redder tint on the ballast (well-used rail can be a grayish color, while ballast seems to turn a redder color), one approach would be to paint the rails before ballasting and then after ballasting paint a light coat, possibly even a different color.  Some people even just paint the rails/ties, and leave the ballast uncolored (which looks right for fresh ballast).