What are techniques that you have used to make roads on your layout.
Neil,
What kind of roads are you interested in? Asphalt? Concrete? Brick? Dirt? Gravel?
I’ll share a real quick one on asphalt. Contact (the same folks that make draw liners) makes cork in 18" x 36" x 1/16" rolls that has a peel-off backing. You can find it at office supply places like Office Max. The cost: ~$6
Here’s how I go about making an asphalt road:
- Cut the cork to your desired road width.
- Peel off backing and stick it to the layout surface.
- Since cork is porous, use a spatula to lay down a thin layer of spackle to fill in the voids and let dry. Once dry, lightly sand with fine sandpaper. Repeat with another layer of spackle and sanding.
- Vacuum off all dust and paint surface of cork with PollyScale Grimy Black. Finish road by painting center and any side lines.
Neil, I’ve only experimented with the above, but it looks pretty so far.
Tom
There are a couple of good methods I know of, depending on the type of road you want.
For paved roads this wirks well, though I add a line of toothpicks glued end to end down the centerline of the road before I put the foam down to give the road a slight crown. http://www.telusplanet.net/public/crowley/ashphalt_roads.htm
For a dirt road this series of articles works well:
http://www.pacificcoastairlinerr.com/roads/
My concrete roads were relatively easy to make. I made the roads first by gluing a thin piece of card board (cut to size beforehand) on a smooth surface. Any thin card board (from cereal boxes, etc.) will do. My roads are wider in the foreground than in the background to force perspetive. Roads running from front of layout to back of layout are tapered smaller as the approach the backdrop.
I use concrete colored latex paint to paint the roads. After paint dries, I draw expansion jpints and cracks with black ball point pen. I use white or yellow tape cut to size for the stripes. FInally, I weather the roads with water based colors to simulate dirt and grime. I streek the weathering in the direction of traffic flows.
On the shoulders, I use common scenic materials for gravel or dirt.
When the road reaches the back drop, I paint more road tapering into the distance on the backdrop. I place trees at the place where the road moves from top of layout to back drop to conceal the transistion.