Used the Smooth-It and Asphalt Top Coat to create two lane road. Now want to weather it to look more realistic. The Woodland Scenics manual suggested scoring the top coat with very fine sandpaper, but this just looked scratched and not realistic. They also suggested mixing Asphalt and Concrete Top Coat. Anyone tried this? Anyone have any other successful weathering techniques?
The scratching method is sad. If you mix black and white paint together you can get gray which looks more like a real road except when it is first paved. If you want fresh blacktop then you can use the asphalt color. The Concrete Top Coat which I bought at a local hobby store turned green and my sidewalks looked like a swimming pool with no chlorine. Now I just use which ever black and white acrylic paint I have on had to make different shades for streets. For cement driveways and sidewalks I use Tamiya Light Grey or Sky Grey to keep my colors consistent. I use Dark Sea Grey for fresh poured wet cement.
For weathering I add oil stains down the middle of the lane, maybe some oil spots near stop signs. Also tire marks from hitting the brakes or from burning rubber. Don’t forget potholes and places where they have been filled. Also some roads have cracks which are filled with tar. Sometimes a section has been cut out to install or repair a sewer pipe and has been patched.
By the way, all of my newer roads are made from 0.040" sheet styrene, also sidewalks, driveways and patios, because I think it makes the best roads of the methods which I have tried.
j…
Also sometimes rain washes dirt onto the road in some low lying spots.
Shaved grey sidewalk chalk applied with a brush.
I happen to think many modeled streets and roads are too textured – back away far enough from a real concrete or asphalt road to equal how far our eyes are away from our layouts and the texture looks quite smooth as a rule. I also think many modeled roads look a bit too blotchy and varied – again, back away from a real road or street to equal how far our eyes are from a modeled road, and the tone of color takes on a uniformity.
To model the subtle streak of oil in the middle of a road, I take a stick of charcoal (or burned wood from the fireplace for that matter) and draw a line with it, then I soften that line with a toothbrush, old mascara brush, or Q tip. There are photos and text of my method in my Frugal Modeler article in the NMRA Midwest Region “Waybill” found here:
www.mwr-nmra.org/region/waybill/waybill20102summer.pdf
Dave Nelson
I use Arizona Rock & Material Asphalt for my paved roads and I don’t seal it. In the normal cleaning of my layout the Asphalt roadways get weathered during the process. I’m super clumsy so my sloppiness has added to the weathering over the years so my roadways look real to me.
I’m currently working on the area just above the pictured roadways so I have removed all my vehicles, trees/bushes and streetlights so clumsy won’t ding something. The rolling