Given the choice I would had liked to airbrush the white styrene that will become asphalt roads before-hand, but I didn’t.
Does one brand of paint like Modelflex, Floquil, Scalecoat, etc, seem to work better than the others when hand painting white styrene?
I assume it’s going to take more than one coat. Probably start with a color like SP Lark Light Grey. Jim
FWIW, I use ordinary house-hold flat latex paint for my roads. My roads are made from a mix of plaster, masonite and styrene and it works great on them all. As an added bonus, YOU get to choose the exact color you want when you have it tinted as opposed to being restricted by what model paint manufacturers think it should look like.
This is a pic showing some of my roads - this one is a mix of masonite and styrene. To paint the concrete section, I just added some white latex to my asphalt mix to lighten it …
Mark.
Very nice looking road, Mark (along with everything else). I like to use Floquil Aged Concrete. It will generally cover in one coat and it provides a nice base for weathering, which is really the key to making concrete roads look real. This is a picture I posted in an earlier thread on crossings. It’s styrene sheet painted with Aged Concrete and weathered with chalks. I think it’s a pretty good representation of the average concrete road.
I’ve always used just plain 'ole paint at the local Ace hardware store. Works fine.
I use cheap acrylics from A.C. Moore, Michaels or Wal-Mart. Most of my roads are Durhams Water Putty, and for that I use a wash of gray paint in water, not too thin. I only use styrene for the part of my grade crossings between the rails, and I use straight paint, weathered with either powders or an India Ink wash.
I’d stick with Polly Scale or Floquil. True styrene doesn’t take latex paint very well. Try some on a piece of scrap and see how easy it rubs off.
I whole-heartedly disagree - once the latex fully dries it adheres very well. Some of my roads have been done for fourteen years - not even a flake missing. I use the same paint for styrene bridge abutments, sidewalks and structures. I’ve NEVER experienced any problems with paint adhesion even with adding “cracks” with an x-acto blade after the fact !!!
I’m not certain, but I use all FLAT finish latex paints - maybe a semi-gloss or gloss finish latex may not bind as well because of the added components for a glossier finish. The flat finish latex I use is actually quite difficult to remove after it’s fully set. It has to be scaped off, it won’t flake off by no means.
Mark.
Mark,
Your scenery is excellent. I had to check the cars to know for sure it was a model (why can’t they make cars that look “real” in pictures?).
Can you give us a quick run down of the materials used. Especially things like the tall grass in the foreground, the flowers, and the trees. Where did you get the road signs?
Thanks,
-John
John - I gave a quickie run-down on my trees using the same pic here …
http://www.trains.com/TRC/CS/forums/1228133/ShowPost.aspx
The tall grasses are a grass mat made by Busch. I especially like theirs as the grass fibres are considerably longer than any others I’ve found …
http://www.busch-model.com/katalog/e/artikel/7280-h0.htm
The weeds are short lengths of jute rope stuck in white glue and fanned out. The purple flowers I found by chance in the artificial flower section of our local Dollarama store !!! The signs are the real thing - I spend a good deal of time in the areas that I model and take hundreds of pictures of every last detail. For the road signs, I just scale down my picture to the proper size, cut it out and install directly on the layout. If need be, any photo-editing program can easily change names, numbers and directions.
Mark.
Laws of physics and chemistry must be different on my layout. Used craft paint (which is really latex) on a couple of styrene structures and you could peal it right off. It beaded up and didn’t want to cover worth a darn. It’s really made for porous things like wood, plaster and ceramics. That’s why the dried paint peals off the bottles so EZ.
I see the problem - you have to use the CANADIAN latex paint !!! [;)]
In all seriousness, I bought some white latex paint a about nine years ago in the US because at that time it was a LOT cheaper than ANY of the latex paints in Canada …within two years, almost all of the paint had peeled off the barn. I then scraped off the few remnants, paid four times as much for 3/4 as much paint here in Canada and redid it … seven years later, it still looks good !!!
The stuff I get here DOES stick to plastic, and surprisingly well.
Mark.
Thanks for sharing all that info, this is my first try at using white styrene.
I wasn’t at first going to paint mine, but after looking at your guy’s photos. I might just need to try using some paint.
My layout is still under development. [:)]
Dan
Can you maybe mask the edges, and spray the roads?
Although I’ll catch a lot of flak for this, I’d use an oil based enamel paint for the styrene…I HATE water based paints on plastics. [|(]
Rotor
I used thinned modelflex weathered black and thinned reefer gray washes applied by brush on this module. Base was black and then a number of coats of washes. The hardest part was getting the base coat to stick.
I do have another question about line painting, what do you use to paint the lines? And how do you keep the lines looking straight?
Thanks
I use professional pin-striping tape for all my line work.
(see picture near the top of thread)
It HAS to be the professional grade as the stuff you get at the local discount automotive supplier is thicker and won’t conform to tight curves as well. The professional grade stuff is really thin and super sticky ! My taped lines have been down for over 14 years with no signs of lifting or shrinking at all !
Mark.
Hi Jim: There must be 99 ways to make and finish model roads. There’s some very good advice from posters here. Mark, Jim, & Mike, some great looking roads, esp. Marks photo. That is outstanding modeling. I’ve tried a variety of materials and paint combinations to get realistic looking roads. My era is the 50’s - 60’s. IMHO, the last road I did was probably the simplest and best looking one. I used .040 styrene, painted it with a base of grimy black Floquil water based paint, & finished it with dry brushed side walk chalk, (borrowed from my grandchildren). I masked it with blue painters tape, (not the best, I know), and painted the lines with a white paint pen. Here’s a photo, you be the judge. 
Might just need to try that with the paint lines, I starting to really like this white styrene. I’ve made some progress on my street, cutting out the 22" peice that goes inside the rails took some time to sand it down all that. But I’m happy with the way it turned out, I thinking about painting for the most part a grey color, then some form of flat fadded white for a few sections.
I finished my roads, except for weathering, and road markings since my original post in September. I used .040 Styrene painted with Floquil SP Lark Light Gray with a little Reefer White added. The road markings were all white for a 1960s time frame. I used a matte graphic tape from Chartpak which has worked out well, especially for the curves. Since I am n scale, I used a width of 1/64" and 1/32".
That is a terrific scene. Not just the roads, but everything. One of the best I’ve ever seen. Is it a diorama or part of a layout? Regardless, I’d love to see more photos.
BTW, where does one buy professional pin-striping tape? Thanks