Making progress

 

I've been working on painting the track sides with the rusty paint mix and a small brush. It is time consuming, but making good progress:

It's very apparent here which track I still have to work on!

It's going to take a while ...

 

A quick update on continuing weathering tracks:

Rail joiners - part 2

 

As I'm waiting for the black wash to arrive to continue on my weathering test, I decided to start the same process on another section.

The first step is to add the missing ties, but this time, instead of using the Peco joiners shown in the previous post, I decided to use the ties from the actual flex track. It is more realistic as they evidently have the same dimension and we keep details like the plate on each side of the track:

Once the glue is dry, it is very hard to locate those "re-added" ties. On the photo below, you need to find a tiny piece of the red wire to know where they were added:

Not fully related to this topic, a couple of pictures of today's work: adding ties and airbrushing:

Rail joiners - part 1

 

As I was cleaning up the tracks for the season, isolated joiners broke down; this is likely because of the lack of tie support and of the damaged plastic of the isolated jointers (likely because of the UV).

The solution is to install PCB track ties that are typically used at the end of a module to ensure rails will not be damaged or dislocated. I purchased this on eBay:

I soldered the tracks on the PCB ties. One side of the isolated joiners was still in good shape. I moved them to connect the two tracks on each side, which helps with vertical and horizontal alignments:

 

As I was working on ties, I started adding missing ties in other areas. I bought those a while back:

Here's the before and after:

Looks good!

 

Track weathering - part 3

 

I continue with track weathering. At this stage, I focus on the ties making them not totally uniform. The goal is to make each tie almost unique.

Based on that same video, I use:

• Testors Model Master Light Sea Grey FS36307
• Testors Model Master Dark Grey 2169
• Vallejo Green Brown

Next step is a black wash ...

Track weathering - part 2

Preparation 

I decided to prepare two small sections to test track weathering. First I had to add missing ties:

I then protected the surrounding tracks:

Ties / sleepers

I then airbrushed with Testors Model Master Railroad Tie Brown Flat 4885:

I immediately passed a scrap of plywood on top of the rail to remove the excess paint:

Here's a close up:

Rust on the track sides

I made a mix of Microlux Rail Brown #29001 and Rust #29005:

The paint is applied with a small brush; it should cover the sides as well as the plates:

Looks good!

Airbrush

 

First time using an airbrush! I watched plenty of videos on YouTube both about the compressor and about using an airbrush.

It came with a manual that suggests some exercises:

I certainly need more practice, but since my first task is to airbrush tracks, I'm not too concerned about precision just yet!

I'm adding here a helpful video on maintenance for the compressor:

HLE 28 SNCB avec sa rame de wagons sucriers VTG Uagnpps type H45 092D

 

A couple of pictures from Flickr:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/arnold50/36314910323/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/141067577@N05/31513994448/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/139994786@N04/44062913150/

And now a similar train in HO scale:

I found this interesting article explaining that the 3 HLE 28 models available from LS Models, were actually manufactured by ACME: https://cooltrain.be/index.php/component/content/article?id=242:ls-models-reeks-28

Opening for Spring