I’m no stranger to laying out gravel roads and such, but I’m wondering if there isn’t a better way than what I’ve been accustomed to doing.
I’ve been painting out a mix of glue/water and sifting out the HO ground cover material - which has included ballast, cinders, stone, etc., in both “real rock” and the Woodland Scenics materials. Once dry, I would smooth it out with a straight edge, and fill in as needed.
The end result is OK, but frankly it looks too “pretty” and pristine - surely not what they look like in the real world after any kind of usage.
Sooo, my obivious question is - what all do you do for your gravel roads, etc.?
I model in HO, but I used N-scale ballast for the parking lot by the Railway Express depot:
The fine grains set it off from track ballast, and the lighter color distinguishes it from the road. This scene is in the back of the layout anyway. It’s a small parking lot with an irregular shape, and there are a lot of other details to draw the eye away from the parking lot itself.
Hi: I use a combination of Sculptamold/Structolite as my basic terrain. For dirt/gravel roads, I used an old Surform tool to smooth the perlite that is in the Structolite. To my eye, in HO, it doesn’t take a lot of texture to “look right”.
When i saw beach sand the color that i desired for a gravel parking lot, I saved a zip lock baggie of it. Once dried and sifted, I glued it down just like i was spreading ballast. Two benefits to doing the project this way: 1) cost was spectacularly low, affordable even for subways in North Dakota, and 2) whenever I look upon that parking lot, I am reminded of another delightful day with my wife.
While I haven’t actually built any gravel roads or parking lots, I have made a few gravel roofs using fine artist sand evenly sifted over wet paint. I would imagine my gravel roof technique could also be used to build gravel roads and parking lots.
In your original post you wrote, “The end result is OK, but frankly it looks too “pretty” and pristine - surely not what they look like in the real world after any kind of usage.”
Sandpaper is about as pretty and pristine as you can get. Variation is the key to realism and there isn’t any variation in sandpaper. Look at the variation in Rob’s and Grampy’s photos. Variation in color. Variation in distribution. That’s why they look so good.
He said it was interesting, not awesome. it’s very true sandpaper surfaces don’t look as good as Robs and Grampys photos, but I have found a couple of tricks on that.
They’re is often two color (brown/black) sandpaper
You can sprinkle sand on it. Esp edges where wheels don’t go.
Dry brush and crayon (careful crayon catches) creates nice effects.
I am dismantling, so could not take a photo to show this.
For a country road I used sifted fireplace ash, which has enough color variation to avoid looking pristine and neat and does not look like a bunch of rocks.
See page 6 of the Midwest Region Waybill for my article’s photo of the results
it’s very true sandpaper surfaces don’t look as good as Robs and Grampys photos, but I have found a couple of tricks on that.