Modeling Concrete/Roadways

[Blevins18]

What methods do everyone use for making roads and concrete lots and sidewalks? I've used Woodland Scenics paving system before but wasn't happy with the results. I know theres commercial products available but I was thinking of cutting sheet styrene into my shapes and painting them.

 

Thoughts? suggestions?

 

[cteno4]

Blevins

 

There is one technique where you use fun foam (2mm thick dense foam rubber you can get at craft stores) sheet material as your base. Then paint it with acrylic paint mixed with some plaster. This gives you your cement coating. Then you cam push down on the surface to crack it where you want. Works for asphalt as well. You can even dig out pot holes.

 

Cheers

 

Jeff

Edited April 12, 2013 by cteno4

[Blevins18]

I think I'd like to try that. That's a relatively inexpensive method and sounds like it produces a great result.

[cteno4]

hardest thing is to get an even coat with a brush, but some light sanding then airbursh final coat could give you a fairly smooth cast concrete road surface then.

 

fun foam is great stuff as its super easy to trim/cut and forgiving. you can easily transition levels with it and much more flexible to wiggle into odd shapes, areas, and elevations than styrene is.

 

i wish it came in 1mm thick as that would be great for sidewalks

 

jeff

[bill937ca]

i wish it came in 1mm thick as that would be great for sidewalks

 

jeff

 

I think if you search in eBay you may be able to find different thickness. But it might not be as cheap as the dollar store / toy counter variety.

[Bob_NZ]

Another option is to use a paint program to create roadways complete with road markings and the surface color to suit - you can even include cracks.  You then print out the sheets and paste them to your road surface.  Any visible paper joins represent expansion joints etc.

 

I have not tried this but do recall seeing Japanese web pages devoted to this method - and there were sites that had downloadable templates and various road markings, but unfortunately I no longer have those links.

 

Bob

[Blevins18]

I'll have to look at the paper craft thread and see of maybe a link was posted that had roadways on it. That's another good idea.

[KenS]

For most of my roads, I'm using sheet styrene with gray paint for sun-bleached asphalt. Paint it white, mask where you want lines with thin tape (I'm using some from Tamiya for model masking) and then paint with gray and strip the tape off. That is a bit of work, which may explain why I have so few roads done. But the result looks really good.  The first photo attached shows the initial segment of my expressway done this way.  Unfortunately I still haven't finished the second segment of it...

 

I've also used gray foam-core, with paint markers for lines. The second photo shows a mock-up of my expressway done this way (the sidewalls are just construction paper attached with double-sided tape, which fell off after about six months).

 

I've used the Woodland Scenics stuff in the past, and it worked fairly well, but it's a bit textured and while that looks good in HO, in N-scale that's a bit too rough for a good road. The gray road in the back is painted WS roadway on my old HO layout.