Painting Unitrack

[robert3985]

Wellllll...since I don't use (and never will use) Unitrack, I spray-bomb my track with Krylon Camo-Ultra-Flat-Black...let it dry for a bit, then spray it lightly from directly overhead with Krylon Camo-Ultra-Flat-Brown.  The brown gets the ties directly, but the overspray "tints" the sides of the rails, giving them a nice, warm gray look.

I suppose the Krylon I use would eat the plastic ballast on Unitrack.  Fortunately Krylon makes a "plastic-friendly" version of their Camo spray cans, which would be okay.

After I spray bomb my track, I burnish the railheads with a soft Bright Boy track cleaner...not allowing it to cure.  If you let it cure, it's very hard to get off.  If you can still smell the paint, it hasn't cured yet...so burnish away!

I also randomly paint various ties with slightly different tints of brown ...lighter, darker, redder, grayer...for variety, using some of my many bottles of nice, flat Polly S paint.  This goes pretty quick and really adds extra realism.

I think you could do the same thing on your Unitrack since you're going to cover up the unsightly plastic "ballast" anyway, and one of the things I really like about the Krylon Camo colors is that they are "dead flat"...no gloss whatsoever.

I'm sure rail colors differ from region to region, and since I am modeling the U.P. in Weber and Echo Canyons just a few minutes from my home, it's easy for me to go there and see what colors the sides of the rails really are.  Once thing for sure is that they're not "rusty" looking, but a light, warm grayish color.  Maybe rails in other parts of the country are rusty looking, but not on the mainline, or sidings, or yards I'm modeling. 

Photo (1) - Here's a photo I took up Echo Canyon when the light was right to specifically show the color of rail, ties and ballast:



Photo (2) - Here's a photo of Atlas C80 track I laid on my friend Nate's (nato) layout using the Krylon paint bomb method to color rail and ties:


I thought the above photo would be more pertinent to the OP's question since the tie spacing and proportion, and rail height and profile are similar to Unitrack.  I use Highball N-scale ballast, which I believe would be fine enough to be able to apply a thin layer to Unitrack and not cover the ties...but I wouldn't want to be the person to do it! Way too much trouble for me, but it would certainly improve the looks exponentially!

Photo (3) - Here's what this technique does with Railcraft (ME) C55 and handlaid code 40, with weathering applied after ballasting to represent U.P.'s red weed killer which coats both track and ballast until fresh ballast, fresh ties, and new rails are installed:



Photo (4) - A photo showing track, tie and ballast color at Echo Junction during the time period I model...no "rusty" rails, but lots of split and damaged ties on this section of U.P. mainline trackage, and a bit of ballast on top of the ties too:



If you are wanting something "real", then, as always, my advice is to just go look at what you're modeling to get the right colors and textures, or find color reference photos of the area, and time period that suits your preferences.  Anything less is just guesswork.

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

[chicken45]

That's amazing, Bob! Wow!

[jmarley76]

Photo (3) - Here's what this technique does with Railcraft (ME) C55 and handlaid code 40, with weathering applied after ballasting to represent U.P.'s red weed killer which coats both track and ballast until fresh ballast, fresh ties, and new rails are installed:[/b][/i]

Wow! I had to stare at this one for a good while before I could decide if it was a model or the real thing... 

[seusscaboose]

yeah

that's damn near the best I've ever seen on here... if not the best... then tied (pun intended) for the best.

dang.... makes me wanna give up and take up tennis.

[peteski]

I've seen Bob's handiwork in here before and it looks as awesome as always.  Now if we could him to demonstrate how good his techniques will work on Unitrak. . . Oh Bob, would you be willing to buy a package of Unitrack and see if you can work your magic on the plastic ballast/ties? 

[RBrodzinsky]

This is a photo from my Unitrack layout. I've use Arizona Rock & Mineral ballast, and painted the ties with a light grey/brown.  The rails are painted with a rail-tie brown paint pen

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[robert3985]

I've seen Bob's handiwork in here before and it looks as awesome as always.  Now if we could him to demonstrate how good his techniques will work on Unitrak. . . Oh Bob, would you be willing to buy a package of Unitrack and see if you can work your magic on the plastic ballast/ties? 

Peteski,  Y'know, that's a damn good idea.  I've got some ideas banging around in my skull about how to more easily attach ballast to Unitrack, and do it quickly.  Feels good in my head, but it might be a good thing to test, photograph and write about in actual application if the ideas work.  Thanks a lot for the suggestion!  Probably do that after the big model train show this weekend at Ogden Union Station

yeah

that's damn near the best I've ever seen on here... if not the best... then tied (pun intended) for the best.

dang.... makes me wanna give up and take up tennis.

Truthfully, I had hoped it'd make people want to do that damned ballasting...and enjoy it!  LOL  Thanks for the kudos...and as I stated in my post, just goin' out on a Sunday afternoon and taking some photos and measurements goes a long way towards making things look exponentially more "real".

Wow! I had to stare at this one for a good while before I could decide if it was a model or the real thing... 

Part of the realism is using flextrack that isn't in production any longer...Railcraft, the finest looking N-scale track ever made.  Good thing I bought a chit-load of it long ago! In addition to taking photos dealing with the color of rails, ties and ballast, I did a few other things to make things look more "real" on my track.  First, I visualize my track as a model...just as valid as what rolls on top of it, or sits along side it.  It's the "foundation" of a realistic layout, and contributes greatly to the enhancement of those lovely and highly detailed recent offerings from N scale manufacturers which seem to be making things more and more accurate.  Second, I took a few hours before I laid an inch of track to discover a few things about the ballast (1) What the average diameter of the ballast rocks are, and (2) What the colors of the ballast rocks are and in what proportion, and (3) What the ballast contour of mainline trackage on the U.P. was.

Here are my findings: (1) The average rock diameter is 3", so I made a couple of screens to filter out rocks smaller than 2 N-scale inches, and larger than 3 N-scale inches.  The screen which filters out the smaller rocks also did something that is VERY important when using "real rock" N-scale ballast...it gets rid of most of the ultra-fine dust.  This dust, if left in, will make scale-sized ballast look like coarse concrete, rather than discrete rocks.  (2)  I found that the actual ballast is comprised of four different colors of rocks, black, dark gray, light gray, and a medium reddish brown.  I mixed two different colors of Highball N-scale "Genuine Limestone" Ballast first (Dk. Grey and Lt. Grey) in a roughly 50/50 mix, then added a bit of Highball N-scale "Cinder" (mostly black) until I liked it while comparing the mix with my reference photos.  Then I screened some reddish sandstone from Echo Cliffs to the correct diameter and added that.  Note that the ballast will get darker and lighten up only a bit when the ballast cement is applied and after it dries...but it will always be a couple of shades darker than the dry mix.  Then, (3) I found a diagram on the U.P. website dealing with mainline contours, showing a cross-section of ballasted track, which I reduced to N-scale and used as a pattern to make a contouring tool out of gray Plastruct plastic which gives me a rough scale contouring just like a prototype Jordan Spreader did on the actual trackage.  I clean up what's between the ties and on top with a soft, square watercolor brush.

Photo (1) - Here's a photo of one of my homemade ballast spreaders in code 55:


After the ballasting is done and dry, I go back through and chip off the stray stones that inevitably adhere to the sides of the rails and tops of some ties, and touch those spots up.  Then, I weather both track and ballast at the same time with my airbrush, applying weed killer, brake dust, and grease on appropriate mainlines.  Gotta be careful to not overdo this part.

The idea is that nowadays (25 years later) I don't have to do all those time-consuming research junkets and research any more.  My ballast is all pre-mixed, with the dust removed, the ballast contouring tools are in their appropriate drawer and easy to get to, my ballast cement is all mixed up in a quart jar...and so I don't have to spend any time or additional energy on those parts of making the ballast look "real"...I just apply it, glue it, touch it up and weather it...and it's done.

Easy Peasy.... 

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

[peteski]

Well, I'm glad I poked you Bob!  It was half in-jest, but deep down I was hoping that you would take on the challenge.  Especially since you said that you never touched the stuff and never would. Now I'm genuinely curious what kind of magic you perform on Unitrack.    Can't wait to see the results. 

[Chris333]

FWIW Raildig has a few unitrack articles:
http://www.raildig.com/?s=unitrack

[chicken45]

Oh baby! I'm stoked about this! Can't wait to see what you come up with, Bob!

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Yeah, I'm really curious to see what Bob does with it too. His track is truly spectacular.

[jmarley76]

makes me wanna give up and take up tennis.

I don't know if I would go that far... 

[robert3985]

Train show is over, and I had a great time selling every single post 1965 car I had by the middle of Saturday!  Picked up a couple of Digitrax Duplex throttles to add to the layout, a bunch of eastern road cars to add to my UP trains...AND, a package of straight Unitrack with wooden ties.  It'll be next week before I get around to playing with it to see how "real" I can make it, but the project has been on my mind a lot the past few days.

I decided I'm gonna make a very small diorama representing UP double track mainline (SURPRISE!   ) and use materials I've got on-hand.  I also think I'm gonna start a new thread for this project, so stay tuned...

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

[jmarley76]

Train show is over, and I had a great time selling every single post 1965 car I had by the middle of Saturday!  Picked up a couple of Digitrax Duplex throttles to add to the layout, a bunch of eastern road cars to add to my UP trains...AND, a package of straight Unitrack with wooden ties.  It'll be next week before I get around to playing with it to see how "real" I can make it, but the project has been on my mind a lot the past few days.

I decided I'm gonna make a very small diorama representing UP double track mainline (SURPRISE!   ) and use materials I've got on-hand.  I also think I'm gonna start a new thread for this project, so stay tuned...

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

Sounds like an article for submission in the making...

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Absolutely. One other thing to think about trying out too is the concrete tie stuff. After you paint the ties, it looks even better than the standard stuff.