How do you all make your roads? I have made the same road 4 times and everytime I tear it up because it just does not look right. I want a less used back road that leads to a grain mill but I cant find the right proceedure or look.
Dirt, gravel, or paved? If paved, I haven’t run across a better system than using sheet styrene. For dirt or gravel roads, probably something like sculptamold might be the best choice.
-George
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/
This is what I’ve done in the past with fair results. For paved roads, I’ve used fine sandpaper (the black kind) cut to the proper width and glued down with rubber contact cement. It can be aged (weathered) with an extremely light spray of light gray and a diluted wash of india ink for the tar in the gravel. For dirt roads, I mix real sand with flat tan latex paint to the point is like cake batter, then paint the “road” with this. Ruts and ripples can be made by using a 1/2" brush and going over it again. Now I haven’t done this yet, but just an idea here. For a road where tar is sprayed and gravel spread on top of the tar, I would mask the road edge and paint with 50/50 mix of white glue and water, and assuming this is HO scale, sprinkle on fine N scale gray ballast. When dry, vacuum the access and give this a wash with diluted india ink, again for the tar between the gravel. Ken