Okay guys!
first, the tie painting. This is from Furlow's "San Juan Central" from the early eighties MR, also sold as a book "HO narrow gauge layout you can build" I just mix a few colors of paint in film canisters until I think it is a good tie color. Observe real ties to see variations in brown, gray, and reddish brown. Mix 3-4 colors, and randomly paint ties with a small brush and have fun. for the rails, paint them first. you can either use a spray can or brushpaint them as well. If you look at the prototype, rail color also varies over the length of the rail. It definitely consumes time, but for small layouts, it is no biggie.
And for the turntable, this is another idea borrowed from the san juan central. It is a cheapie atlas, 9" long. Not very useful for standard gauge because it is short, but is ideal for HOn3. I glued some wood strips between the rails using walther's GOO to cement the scratchbuilt bridge to. The bridge is entirely scratchbuilt using basswood, and the HOn3 rail attatched using PCB ties and either GOO or CA. I built it a few years ago and don't have photos of the construction.
anyway, i am starting to feel recovered from this stupid strepp throat and may actually make progress tomorrrow! (before the super bowl)
kevin