The Blue Cocoon
Doing the rockwork was so enjoyable that I got just a bit carried away, and neglected the order of execution for certain key layout construction steps. The step I nearly forgot: painting the track. I had to do it now, because the more scenery I finished, the harder it would be to mask everything off so that I could spray.
Mind you, I did spend a fair bit of time experimenting with various track painting techniques. Several leftover sections bear witness to my experiments in brush-painting the rails and ties, as well as several approaches to ballasting. After testing Plans B, C, D and E, I determined Plan A was still the one of choice.
Plan A was to spray all of the track. The primary reason Plans B and on failed is because brush-painting the rails produced unsatisfactory results (not to mention it involved considerable manual labor). The metal needed to be primed for good coverage, and even brushing on primer didn't work well.
And so the layout got wrapped up in a cocoon of blue masking tape in preparation for the Big Spray. But I had one last task to complete before I could pull the trigger on the spray can.
Because I couldn't devise a cosmetically-acceptable way of dealing with the manual switch levers, I made the rather bold move of cutting them off and sealing the openings with pieces of styrene; I then applied a bead of PowerGrab along the full length of both sides of each switch to completely seal them to the subroadbed. The reason for this rather extreme-sounding measure is a consequence of the switch mechanism design: the main slider inside the unit is completely exposed on the underside of the switch. Thus, anything that might get under the switch would render it non-functional.
After all of the blue tape was removed, a quick test confirmed that all of the switches survived the ordeal. The only unfortunate incident, oddly, was a case of the special blue painter's masking tape not performing as it's supposed to on the layout trim: it didn't damage the finish, but instead actually tore away small bits of the wood veneer! I'll have some woodworking repairs to make to correct that little mess.
The paint I chose was Rust-Oleum Flat Brown, which has a nice ruddy rail rust hue. An India ink wash turns it into a decent tie brown, and some dashes of driftwood stain gives the ties individuality. It's all still very dark-looking at the moment, since obviously the molded ballast got sprayed as well; this will change when re-ballasting takes place, which will begin after most of the basic terrain is done. Still, the layout as a whole is actually a little easier on the eyes since a fair amount of the stark white Gatorfoam is now also brown—I was half-tempted to spray it all!