Looking for low cost air brushable rail/tie paint

A friend of mine took a swatch of Floquil RR Tie brown to the local Home Depot and had them mix up a matching quart of latex paint.    He is in HO.   He paints the ties and rails at one time with this with a 1 inch brush and lets dry for a day or so.  Then he comes back and scrapes off the top of the rails.   He says you can scrape the top off with your fingernail or a piece of wood (corner) or one of those plastic scrapers.  

When it is ballasted it looks great and the price is right and the speed of application is great.   I have done some of the painting too.   

The downside for your maybe might be one color for both rails and ties.   You could do it with any color.    Also, I doubt it would spray without a lot of thining and then may not cover.

When I did mine in O, I just used a small brush and brush painted the sides of the rail facing the front.   I found a brush that just rode in the gap between the head and the tie plates and painted the tie plates as ti went.    I used floquil and it seemed go pretty far that way.

I  went to HD and bought a gallon of "Oops" paint. I had them make it as close to chocolate brown as possible. They did a good job, considering the starting material. Then I went to AC Moore or Michael's and bought a brush of suitable size for the rails. It is slow, but works well. I suppose you could thin the stuff with Flotrol, but I have not tried that.

Chris

LVHR

Thats what our club did also. I sprayed some cardboard with Poly Scale Japanese Army Brown and had Home Depot mix up a gallon of latex. You might also consider using an oil based product for easier thinning.

Pete

The only other efficient option may be Weaver's Scale Coat II or this stuff:

http://www.hofcraft.com/chroma-airbrush-colors.htm

A combination of black, white, and raw umber should yield a decent RR Tie Brown. I'd like to know what you come up with.