Switch, Rail joiners, Ballast, Weathering ... part 3

 

Continuing on that section, I focused on this session on painting in rust color the side tracks for the switches. It is quite tedious, but once you know where to be careful not to paint for electric contact, it can be done rather quickly.

Once dry, I will have to clean the top rail and test to make sure I'm correct in my assumption before going around the layout 😁

Switch, Rail joiners, Ballast, Weathering ... part 2

Continuing on the same tracks ... 😁 I covered the critical areas of the switch points and ran the airbrush to paint the sleepers.

I then used a small brush to manually paint the sleepers in those covered areas:

I then started painted the sides of the tracks with the rust paint:

Switch, Rail joiners, Ballast, Weathering ...

 

Amazingly enough, I'm still able to work in the train room, yay! Typical work: detailing switches, adding missing sleepers, ballasting, and weathering. Some pictures of the current work:

Fixed alignment at C5/X5 and added sleepers 

Detailing switch C4

Detailing switch C3

Adding missing sleepers in various sections around C1/D3:

And some more switch detailing:

Detailing a switch

I read an article in Loco Revue about the detailing of Peco switches to make them more realistic. It is based on BD-Concepts 3D parts.

Here's a link to the article:

It is using the "Kit de détaillage pour 3 aiguilles Peco avec système de réchauffage au gaz

Référence VOI-004:

I purchased directly from Loco Revue: https://trains.lrpresse.com/A-19177-kit-de-detaillage-pour-3-aiguilles-peco-a.aspx

The manual can be downloaded and is actually more helpful than the article:

Unfortunately, I didn't see that article before installing all my switches, so I'm not going to use their switch plate even though it looks much prototypical.

before

after

I also fixed my issue with the track right next to that switch. The transition is too tight and I need those nails to keep the two tracks in position. Not ideal ...