painting over fastrack

I haven't tried this, but I would advise you to try to think of another approach to achieve the look you're after.  FasTrack switches are temperamental enough new out of the box (I fixed about 30 new ones in the last month) without having paint gumming up the moving parts.  Another consideration is that if paint wicks into the joints between the rail pins and/or between the pins and the rails, you would have power drop outs on the track.  Correcting this would be a royal pain.  Some might even say that it would be easier to throw it away and buy more track.

Like I said, I haven't tried this, maybe someone else here has figured out a way to do what you're contemplating, without creating electrical and mechanical problems.

Here's an old small apartment layout in various stages of construction that I created years ago as a piece of furniture.  It is sofa height.

I used Krylon 'rattle can' paint.  A color called  Camo Brown.     I slide newspaper under all the track. I did use some narrow Scotchlock painter's tape over the switch frogs.

Then I would gently spray a few section at a time, evenly.   I would then take a cheesecloth rag and wipe down the rail tops.

Once I was all done, and the paint was fully dry (very fast dry time) I then went back over the tops of the rails with some iso alcohol to make sure everything was clean.

For the two years I had this setup, I never had any connection, or power issues.   Same with the switches.  I ran DCS and TMCC.

Since you're going to be ballasting the FT anyway and covering most of what you'd be painting, I'd probably skip the painting to avoid any potential issues and focus on getting the right ballast color to match the look you're trying to achieve.

FWIW, Woodland Scenics makes some paint pens to color or "rust" the rails, if you're interested.

thanks for the feedback (and photos!), much appreciated

@Richie C. posted:

FWIW, Woodland Scenics makes some paint pens to color or "rust" the rails, if you're interested.

I would avoid the "rust" color and go with Woodland Scenics TT 4580 "Steel Rail". IMO the rust pens are too orange for rails which are typically more of a dark brown than orange.

While its not perfect, requires more than one coat ,and some touch ups if necessary.  The end result is a substantial improvement over unpainted rails.

If you go this route. Its important to get the edge of the tip to paint along the top edge of the plastic roadbed.

If you look closely in the photo below. The top edge of the plastic roadbed actually is a reasonable depiction of the flared out bottom of the rail with some spike and tie plate detail.

It makes the U shaped fastrack rail look a bit more realistic.

Eventually I want to weather the plastic roadbed between the rails and ties with some powders to blend it in with the ballast better.