Making Roads

[Bernard]

Well I'm finally working on my layout! So today I started working on making roads (I'll do anything else to put off ballasting)

 

I've tried different methods and so far this is the one I personally like best. What I use are:

 

Foam sheets by "Creative" that you can get in any craft store

Hydocal or plaster of paris

Black craft paint (get the cheapest bottle)

Sponge brush

Grey airbrush paint

 

Photo 1 & 2 show the pre-cut parts of the road. I design where they are to go, test fit them, and then number the backs and the area where they go to re-fit them when I'm finished.

[Bernard]

Photo #3

I mix the Hydocal or Plaster of Paris according to instructions. Usually 2 parts hydrocal to 1 part cold water. After stirring I mix in Black craft paint to give it that grey color of Japanese roads.

 

Photo #4

I then spread the mixture onto the pre-cut sheets of foam.

Warning: you don't have a lot of time before the Hydorcal starts to set. I always have Rock casting set aside when I see the Hydocal is set and use the extra to make rocks, then I mix up another batch, in case I can't finish the coating of the sheets of foam.

[Bernard]

Photo #5

Shows the foam fully coated with the Hydocal mixture. Let dry overnight.

 

Photo #6

I airbrush the roads with grey paint and re-fit them on to the layout. If you are really good, after you paint the roads, you can ever so gently push with you finger from the bottom of the foam and create cracks in the road, and if you very, very good, even potholes.

 

The roads are ready for details like center lines, pedestrian walkways, etc. What I like is the texture that you get from the foam roads. The person who came up with this method really got the cracks and potholes down pat. I just can't remember his website to share it with all of you.

[Hobby Dreamer]

A low effort (but potentially high cost) method for roads is to buy them ready-made.

 

For example: (pay attention to scale; there are a few pages of road products)

http://www.noch.de/en/produktkatalog/listview.php?submenue=n&navi_Kategorie1=NOCH&navi_Kategorie2=Terrain+Forming+%26+Crafts&navi_Kategorie3=Highways%2C+Roads+and+Streets&navi_Kategorie4=Stra%DFen-Krepp&jahrNeuheiten=

 

http://www.noch.de/en/produktkatalog/listview.php?submenue=n&navi_Kategorie1=NOCH&navi_Kategorie2=Terrain+Forming+%26+Crafts&navi_Kategorie3=Highways%2C+Roads+and+Streets&navi_Kategorie4=Stra%DFenfolie&jahrNeuheiten=

 

Dealers can be found at top of page

 

http://www.faller.de/start.php?lang=gb&naviUp=3&naviDown=3&dat_artKat1=SpurN&page=liste&skip=0&new=0&dat_artKat2=Dekorplatten%20und%20Stra%C3%9Fen&back=menues_gb/backs/liste_SpurN.jpg

 

I've seen such products made of a soft foam as well as a hard foam. Some of this type of stuff may be ideal for your layouts

 

Rick

[Bernard]

Rick,

Thanks for posting the information, I didn't know these links existed. Have you used any of the roads you've listed and if so how do you like them?

One of the dealers, Model Power is near me.

[Hobby Dreamer]

Hi Bernard,

 

As mentioned, the road material can be either a soft or hard foam. I've seen the soft stuff (this comes  in a roll) and it looks ideal. Its a few mm thick so you would have to plan that when laying it down.  It apparently can be "curved" to a certain degree, but I don't know how much. There was a company called Arnold that made similar road bed that could be bent to 180 degrees!  Application is best made with a stiff roller because it has an adhesive on the back, I have not priced it out but I would rather pay a bit more than have to fool around with paints, hydrocal etc.

 

I have some of the hard foam type at home. Its looks like they took a thin piece of foam not unlike packing foam and compressed it to mold in the brick shape - so its 3D. Then they painted the brick and used a wash. I think its perfect.

 

I don't have a layout but I often go to hobby stores and shows and buy items to explore them for future use. These bricks can be used for a road or a wall. The stuff I have might be Faller and not Noch as the store I got it from sold both in loose sheets. Both companies make top notch products.

 

All the German model RR products are first rate with few exceptions.

 

The big plus for these products is ease of installation and conformity among products.For example, you can get a roadway, intersection and parking lot of the same color.

 

If you are planning a roadway but think you may change your layout in the future, then you could roll the road onto a piece of balsa wood. (I think you have too glue it as it may not stay down).

 

Rick

[Hobby Dreamer]

Another option for road and walls is paper card stock. Its really much better than it sounds, is well priced, easy to assemble and is pre-colored.  There is quite a lot for HO/OO but here is a link to some N.

 

http://www.metcalfemodels.com/acatalog/Building_Materials.html

 

I bought some brick sheets for possible wall/road use. It has a bit of texture to it and looks great IMO. Its light and can be used in the background.

 

There are many sites that offer free examples that you can copy/print. You can always cut/copy a small wall and then repeat the image to result is a larger print. I'll try to find a FAQ for this technique as they recommend one use a stiff paper in the printer.

 

I always like to know my options before diving in.

Rick

[Martijn Meerts]

just buy asphalt paint for roads, it even has a slight structure in it ;)

 

Other than that, I believe woodland scenics has special road stuff as well. Those rolls of the soft, bendable road works great as well, but you have to be careful when you lay the stuff down. If it sticks, it sticks, and it won't come off (except at parts where you don't want it to come off naturally ;))

[kashirigi]

I use Woodland Scenics Smooth-it for making roads. As far as I can tell, it's really just ultra-fine hydrocal. It does, however, make nice roads, especially when painted.

[Bernard]

kashirigi -

How is the finger doing?

My LHS has the WS Smooth-it but it was quite expensive. So I decided to experiment and tried making the roads with spackle compound and I wasn't happy with the results. Do you know if you use plaster-of-paris to make roads? (it would cut down the expense)

[Guest ___]

Here's the billion dollar questions. How does one do intersections and road marking with this method?

[CaptOblivious]

Here's the billion dollar questions. How does one do intersections and road marking with this method?

 

You mean with the premade roads like you are using in these photos?

http://www.jnsforum.com/index.php/topic,651.0.html

(BTW, exactly which road bits are you using? Why don't they lay flat? Is this a problem, do you think?)

I guess one would cut four lengths of road so that they had 90º tongues, then put them together? Maybe?

 

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[Guest ___]

Here's the billion dollar questions. How does one do intersections and road marking with this method?

 

You mean with the premade roads like you are using in these photos?

http://www.jnsforum.com/index.php/topic,651.0.html

(BTW, exactly which road bits are you using? Why don't they lay flat? Is this a problem, do you think?)

I guess one would cut four lengths of road so that they had 90º tongues, then put them together? Maybe?

 

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Oh my roads aren't flat becasue I didn't pull off the tape. In that picture the track and building were laid out to test the Green Liner, but I had to pull it all up so I could lay the foam board down.

[Martijn Meerts]

They have special parts for intersections and such, and most of the markings are already on there. If you need custom ones, I think they have special rub-on things for it.

[bill937ca]

Here's some roads you can print on A4 paper and paste to the layout. These include intersections and curves.

 

http://www.uraken.net/rail/road.html

 

There are also lane marking sets available from Tsugawa.

 

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10021994

 

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10021995

 

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10032598

 

TGW web site:

 

http://www.tgw.co.jp/train/lineup/'>http://www.tgw.co.jp/train/lineup/index2.html'>http://www.tgw.co.jp/train/lineup/'>http://www.tgw.co.jp/train/lineup/index2.html

 

http://www.tgw.co.jp/train/lineup/'>http://www.tgw.co.jp/train/lineup/

 

http://www.tgw.co.jp/

[Bernard]

How did I miss the street markings @ Hobby Search? What I did find a while back was this made by Kato:

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10040487

 

Bill - I like the paper roads for found, I can use those to re-model my roads.

[Guest ___]

I like those paper rods too. I think I'm going to DL and save them all.

[cteno4]

I have seen some impressive pictures of roads made with bernards funfoam/plaster method!

 

I have been experimenting a lot in the last year with creating paper roads for my ttrak streetcar by just laser or inkjet printing them out! we have used them as a fast method on the jrm layout's city streets. trying to improve the process and detail.

 

i have been creating roads in drawing programs along with road textures, details, markings, etc. if you print onto white paper you can just not print in an area to get white lines. i have been experimenting with some drawing papers to give some textures to the paper surface. you can also put in road stains with an airbrush in photoshop or post printing with an airbrush or chalk and qtips. then hit the whole things with some dullcoat to seal it all up. you can also put in details like drains, manhole covers, etc. this is really 2D but really at scale putting in details like these would end up being way out of scale.

 

i like this alternative as its easier for me to try out doing different paving around the street car tracks as well as lots of street marking easily. also easy to get nice straight lines for the road markings! also can easily redo a road if i dont like its effect. hardest thing is choosing a road color! i keep changing my mind on that, but again nice to be able to print out the same road with different ideas and slap it on a module and place some vehicles and see what the effect looks like!

 

been flying around google maps in satellite view of japanese cities to get a handle on the various road marking, turn lanes, etc. i just take markings into the drawing program and redraw the characters so i can scale them onto streets cleanly. could use kanji character sets i guess, but that would take lots longer trying to figure that out!

 

cheers,

 

jeff

[Bernard]

Jeff - If you have them, would you mind posting photos of the roads you've printed? I like seeing examples of different techniques. ;)

[cteno4]

Bernard,

 

ill snap some picts this week. i had torn up my first tests, but have a few sheets i can plop back down on a module to show the effect. i have pretty much gotten to the point that the printing method is the way im going and now just trying to finish my final color choices and work on the production system for it all. last thing is to do the final building layout over about 20 modules to figure out my road pattern. hope to have a system with consistent cross streets every other module so that i can then reconnect them in different orders to mix things up some, but still have a sort of prototypical street pattern. great thing about modeling japan is just about anything you do is prototypical i have found!

 

ttrak is back on hiatus again as im finishing off half the basement to become a train shop and flexible train play area and we are starting a bit of a refurb effort on the jrm layout. too many things to play with too little time!

 

cheers,

 

jeff

[Bernard]

Jeff - Do you find that there are more grey than black roads in Japan?

[Guest ___]

Do you find that there are more grey than black roads in Japan?

 

As I recall asphalt roads fade from black when the blacktop is new to gray as it ages. Or at least that how our roads tend to handle it. (Ah, something I remember from the summer I temped for that road crew years ago for TV dinner money) It was that job that got me yelled at by Linda Carter while flagging traffic in Potomac. 

 

Anysmeg, from my experience in Japan the roads had more of a medium gray tone to it than actual black, but again black top tends to lose a bit of the darkness after a few rain storms. I would assume the sun does the rest.

[cteno4]

Again, anything goes in japan! i have a load of pictures here of roads in japan from all over and you can see the whole range from new black asphalt to very light gray concrete! its more what looks pleasing to the eye in the scene i think. Also a prototypical color may look great in the real thing, but not look so hot on a 1/150 scene! In exhibit stuff we run across this all the time where you end up having to fudge something from real life to make it look like what the eye expects in the contained situation. lighting can really effect contrast and hues compared to outdoor sunlight so its a matter of finding something the eye says ROAD!

 

google satellite can also give you some ideas of the road lightness/darkness for an area your are interested in (if covered)

 

Im not a total prototypical modeler. i like finding interesting things in the real world and then adapting the concept to a fun scene. one of the reasons i like ttrak as you can create a whole string of little mini scenes like this. same with layout modeling, i like taking parts of interesting areas and coming up with an overall flavor of japan, sort of representational instead of totally prototypical. anyway thats thats the fun for me.

 

cheers,

 

jeff