Hey Gang,
I'm helping my nephew build a small layout to help prepare him for the bigger build of his little empire. One of the objects we'll be working on is weathering post war Lionel tubular track. I did some experimenting with AIM and Bragdon weathering powders and wanted to share them with you. We'll sit down with the book Chessie System, by Dave Ori, and compare the samples below to track in the photos to pick the look we want.
Base Coat
The base coat is Behr (Home Depot) Flat with "Iron Mountain" tint. I bought a small sample for less than $3. The base coat will help the powder stick to the rail. I was going for the darker steel look. The color looks like it washed in the photo below. As I look at the rail, it already has that splotchy look of steel. I might try a dusting of dul-coat as a base instead of the paint.
This is AIM's Dark Earth powder.
AIM's Rusty Brown powder.
Bragdon's Dark Rust powder.
AIM's Light Rust powder.
Rusty Brown over Dark Earth.
Dark Rust over Dark Earth.
Light Rust over Dark Earth.
Light Rust over Rusty Brown.
Rusty Brown (L) blended with Dark Earth (R).