Sorry for the delay in responding. I tinted it a dark gray, then painted it afterwards. The tinting was used for two reasons, 1) Hide damaged areas, and (2) After painting I sanded the surface very lightly in areas, revealing the lighter color underneath the paint. Made for some nice variations in color.
Hi Everyone,
Thank you for your opinions & helpful ideas. And thanks, also, for posting the pictures. The work being done by you guys is really impressive. [tup] I’m not sure I’ll ever live up to that level of modelling, but it gives me something to shoot for.
Rich, the parking area is large, but it’s that size to model (within reason) something from my life. Actually, the activity taking place at each siding will serve as a symbol of something meaningful from my life. It sounds kind of silly, I know, but my interest in trains stems from the recent death of my Dad. He always wanted a nice layout, as did I, but life seemed to get in the way and it never happened for him. He would have loved this one.
Anyway…
It seems that drywall mud is the more common suggestion, and that just figures because it was the one thing I wanted to avoid using, lol. [;)] My train room is a spare bedroom and I really wanted to avoid drywall mud sanding dust throughout the bedroom area. (Mud dust is nearly impossible to contain.)
I’m thinking that if I thin it out so much that it’ll pour and level on its own, VS laying it down with knives, that it’ll greatly reduce needing any surface touch-up work. I just need to keep the layers thin to avoid cracking & I’ll probably prime the bare plywood to prevent the bare wood from sucking up the moisture in the mud.
I’ve hung more drywall then I care to remember, but I’ve never needed to thin mud out to this extreme. I’m wondering if that will affect its strength when it dries.
Hmmmmm
-Ed
i used a very unconvetinal methed.
I went out side held my camera level pointed straight down at the road and snapped a picture. went inside uplaoded the pic to my computer and the cut and paste the picture into a road. next i found pictures of potholes and manhole covers and pasted thoose onto my road. the i printed it onto card stock. cut the road out and used aglue stick to attach it to my layout. hint: put the road down after you done the snery as senic glue will wreck the roa
Gabe, enginner, owner and matinece man of the Western Michigan Railroad
The thinner the better and less likely to crack. Drywall mud can be applied to a feather edge. I doubt if you can thin it enough (with water) so that it self-levels. Try the inexpensive plastic finishing tools (very flexible and effective at smoothing) and skip the sandpaper-use a wet sponge for the final finish.
Dante
You could probably just use styrene (house For Sale signs) and paint it dark gray with some dusty chalk for weathering. You don’t really need to use drywall mud or plaster. The key is to weather it with chalks or other “weathering” powders. In the end it will look just as good without all of the mess.
I’ve built some nice roads using flexible wallbase, the rubbery stuff that’s used in kitchens and bathrooms between floor tiles and the wall. I get it from Lowes at about $3 for a 4 foot length.
I’m doing N scale but the stuff comes in 4 inch widths so could also be used for HO. Cuts very easily too.
It forms a natural curve so when laid the road has a natural camber to it.
I stick black wet to dry sandpaper on (code 600) with Welder contact adhesive and when dry paint with a suitable acrylic paint (the cheap stuff from Walmart or Michaels.) I can then do road markings with Woodland Scenics dry transfer decals and weather with chalks.
Besides getting the road camber the stuff is very easy to carve lumps out of for potholes, cracks etc. I usually build shoulders using Sculptamold.
Very easy method to use without dust all over the place. No photos yet but I have a completed section of layout ready for posting soon.