Seem to be several ways to build roads. What are some of the favorite methods? I tend to want to apply light spackle, smooth it out, and paint it, but are there decals for center lines and road borders?
Spackle is one possibility. Ordinary molding plaster, mixed stiff, is another. Some people have used styrene. One member of a club I once belonged to modeled concrete pavement with portland cement - luckily, we never had to repair the trackwork imbedded in it.
As for marking pavement, you might consider using chart tape, or narrow strips of colored electrical tape. My inclination is to use Sharpies of appropriate colors and a high-sided straightedge.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
I like to use plaster for roads. Plaster of Paris, veneering plasters like Unical seem better suited for roads. They have a greater working time than Hydrocal. There are many forms of spackle these days. Most don’t work as well as plaster. Other materials that work quite well are Durabond 90 and Durham’s Water Putty. All the plasters, Durabond and Durhams, will take stains, washes great.
When using the Unical, I like to add powdered masonry dye, with some experience, you can gauge the amounts and colors to get the base road color very close. Only light weathering is needed. If the surface gets chiped the color is through the entire material. This method of coloring is also good for plaster rock molds. Color is added to the dry plater, this allows you to see the approximate dried cured result.
All these roads are done w/ dyed plaster as well as all other casings of the walls, abutments, stone, rock etc.
I have thought about using 30# roofing felt for asphalt roads but haven’t tried it yet. Has anyone used it and liked it?
Another method is to use foam core board. My first road was that and it worked well.
For painting the centerline, one MR video I saw they spray painted the center of the road with yellow (use white for older roads). Then cut a thin strip of masking tape (don’t use the edge of the tape, cut it so that you makea fresh cut each side of the piece you are using. Place the tape down the center of the road over the colored paint. Spray paint your road color. When dry remove the tape and you have a nicely colored line.
Good luck,
Richard
Great job on the road in that first photo.
Where did you get those two tug boats ?
Rich
I use drywall compound. After it has set up, I wipe it gently with a damp sponge. That makes the surface very smooth. Then I paint it to represent asphalt or concrete. As for centre lines, I use a paint pen and a straightedge. For curves I make light pencil marks to show where the lines should go and freehand them. Double lines are a bit beyond me in N scale so I just have single lines. The lines are there and the eye seems to not notice the absence of a second line. At least nobody has pointed it out to me yet.
What paint pens did you use and where did you get them?