staining ties

I put some Nscale Fastrack turnouts togheter a few weeks ago to make an entrance to my High lift coal dumper small yard.

In general I use the stained ME ties but because I can order lot of them, I ended whith non stained ties.

I didn't use the Fastrack laser quick stick ties because feel it quiet expensive for a lot of turnouts.

I never have try to stain ties in  the whole range of colors, from faded gray to newly creosoted ties nearly black.

In the real thing you could'nt find two ties whith the same color, so try to match them, this give a more realistic look.

There are numerous wood staining solution, but this one is mine easy to use, fast and colorful.

I stain my wood ties in a mixture of 1/2 liter 90% isopropilycs alcool and two large spoon of india ink, and a tea spoon of brown acrilycs ink.(the stuff used for direct airbrushing)

Most are let in the closed jar for an around 1.1/ 2 hours, but by augmenting or reduce this time you have a lot of color variations, from deep black to light gray whith some brownish reflects

All track used is ME  wheatered flextrack whith handlaid Fastrack turnout in code 55 Nscale.

Good luck, Marc Belgium

Where do you order ME ties as

Where do you order ME ties as they are discontinued?

That was my issue, I used ME

That was my issue, I used ME ties pre stained until a year or so ago when they discontinued them, so I had to by other ties that are not stained.

And while individual ties tend to differ in color at the distance we typically view our rail roads at the color tends to blend unless you have a brand new tie.