As some of you know I’m building my first HO scale layout, so I’ve had to do a lot of research, reading and trial and error after trial and error, not to mention pestering you guys with a ton of questions. I decided to give two things a try, Durham’s Water Putty for an old asphalt road/parking lots, and Ground Goop for ground cover. In case you don’t know, Ground Goop is 1 part (cup) vermiculite, 1 part celluclay (paper mache product), 1 part ground color paint and 1/2 cup white glue. I like working with the GG, it breaks up that plain, level foam board very nicely, covers seams, washes (gullies) are easy to create. I decided to try it on the center table of my layout, which looks like a capital E… sorta. Here’s an overall shot of it.
After spreading and teasing it into the shapes I want I usually sprinkle some dirt of different shades, i.e. brown, red clay, a mixture of the two etc. I model the southeast and we have lotsa clay.
That hill in the road in the bottom right of the upper photo is a dirt road, where the pavement ends and it’ll go on across the track. Here’s a shot from the opposite angle.
and a little closer to show more detail. I like the way the ‘wet’ goop allows you to get some ‘tooth’ on the hill sides that helps to hold dirt, grass, bushes etc.
Over at the barrell factory, on one side of it… I wanted a little more rugged look, kinda washed out, the way a heavy rain would do, so I wet the area again with ‘wet water’ and then with an eye dropper doused it with a 50/50 mix of matt medium and water. I may come back and put another light sprinklin’ of grass on this spot and for certain some scrubby bushes.
Nice photos and great work. I will have to try the GG myself
when I get to that point. It really adds to the scenery and makes
it appear more realistic thats for sure. I’f love to see more
pics when you get a chance.
Thanks all for the comments. Next I’ve gotta figure out how to put down those center stripe lines. Someone on here had done some great ones with auto pinstriping, the pro grade kind. Maybe I’ll try that since I couldn’t draw a straight line with a ruler! [:)]
Great photos !!! That ground goop stuff seems to be an excellent way to do terrain.
One question, however… How do you keep your trains from rolling off the end of the track ? I can’t see anything there that would prevent a train from rolling off the end of the track.
Looks really good so far. I like that small cut at the end of the station the second photo also.
I’ve tried about every method there is for road striping and have come down to two things that work the best for me. The first is called drafter’s or architectural tape. You can get it in yellow and white in several different widths. It’s easy to use a straight edge and then lay out the tape so it is straight and about in the middle of the road. It’s thin enough that it doesn’t look like tape when you’re through weathering the road. The only problem is that edges seem to always start peeling up after a year or so.
What I use now (since I’m building my first layout in 25 years) is striping decals from Microscale. They are harder to work with than tape but the end result looks much more like real striping because the decals are thin enough that some of the road surface comes through. One of the things I don’t like is road striping that’s too bright since that’s not the way it looks on a real road unless it has been freshly striped. Just be sure to seal the decals with some Dullcote before you begin weathering the roads.
As far as the end of the station track, just get a couple of ties and stick them in the ballast at the end of the tack so they stand up like kind of an “X”, if you understand what I mean. Heck, you can just use a pile of ballast as a track stop. If you want to get fancy, there are several different kinds of track stops and bumpers available from Walthers but I’ve seen a lot of tracks where ties or a pile of ballast or dirt was all that was used.
As for peeling up, we had the same problem when pinstriping a car. A little clear fingernail polish helps seal it. To kill the sheen, spray with Dull-Cote.
Good work, the goop leaves a nice texture for adding the foam products
I have used Durhams for roads with good results. You can wet sand the road after the putty sets up to improve the surface. I used one of those fine grit foam sanding blocks that drywall contractors use on drywall joints. It smooths out the rough spots, and leaves a nice smooth surface for painting. Keep some damp paper towels handy to mop up the goo from the samding, as that will set up hard again.
Nice work,you’re progressing well.Just need to clear somethin up. In your recipe for ground goop ,you state that you use one part of everything then add a 1/2 cup of white glue. So the question is what size are your parts?
Thanks! I’ll remember that! I’ve been working on areas on both sides of the road and , true to form, I drop stuff ON the road that I shouldn’t. So I’ve decided to not work on the road surface again til I’m pretty much done. I’ll stripe it then.
George, this is the first time I’ve used it and didn’t know you could wet sand it. That’s good to know, as I have some… ahem… kinda rough spots in mine. Since it’s supposed to be a back country road I didn’t worry about it too much, but I told myself it wouldn’t do for another street I had in mind. Thanks for the tip!
1 cup celluclay (comes packaged tightly so you need to ‘hand shred’ into a cup
1 cup paint (your ground cover color)
1/2 cup white glue ( I use the cheapest I can find at the Dollar store)
'bout a jigger of Lysol
Stir well and store in a covered container. I’ve found that my container needed help being more air tight so I use a couple of sheets of saran wrap pressed down on top of the goop, then put the lid on. I’ve never tested how long it’ll stay stored because I use it up within a couple of days.
