Model Forum / General / Railroads / March 2006

Woodland Scenics has a road building system. It has three components; Paving
tape (walthers#) 785-1455 for $6.49, Smooth - it 785-1452 for $4.98per
quart, and Top Coat 785-1453 for asphalt or 785-1454 for concrete. Each is
$4.29 for 4 oz.

I have not used this, so . . . .

They also have a Road system kit for 12.98. # 785 952. It looks like a small
quantity of each product as well as the instructions for using it.

Some folks use .060 or .080 styrene sheet;  you could cut up old (or not so
old?) political or real estate yard signs or such.  Draw the road outline,
cut it out, glue it down, paint and weather it.

Also see http://www.rrscenery.com/pavingtutorial.html

I did a reasonably good job of paving a raod using drywall compound.

I always use molding plaster or plaster of paris. Makes a great
looking street , asphalt or concrete. For asphalt , I just mark where
I want the road to be and brush the plaster on with a small brush and
then use a putty knife to smooth it. Its so easy to feather the
plaster on the edges and you can easily put a small crown in the road
as the real ones have. Very seldom do you ever see a perfectly flat
and smooth highway. Even a newly poured one would still have a crown.

When doing concrete streets I glue or pin small strips of wood ,
usually 1/8" x 1/8" or smaller , to create a form along each side of
the road.I pour the plaster in and 'screed' it with a credit card or
some other similiar straight edge. Just like pouring concrete.
Concrete streets also have a crown . A slope of 1/8" per foot is
common practice on many roads. If you don't want to 'eyeball' it , you
can cut a small curve in the straight edge that you screed it with to
get the crown in the center , or lay a wood strip slightly thicker
than those along the edge to screed from. You can easily pull it up
and fill in while the plaster is still setting.

For a long time I looked at roads on layouts and dioramas and some
looked so real real and some did not and the differnce was not readily
apparent. I did notice very quickly however , that the perfectly flat
ones just don't look as good , in my opinion.

Look at the asphalt highways very closely. Not only is there a crown ,
but there will also be 'tracks' where the heavier vehicles have run
and made a depression in the asphalt.
I've actually laid a straightedge over these depressions ( model
railroaders are a strange lot) and some have been as deep as 2".
I sometimes model  these depressions  by dragging my finger through
the plaster while it is still wet.

Another thing I love about plaster is that it's so easy make cracks ,
expansion joints and holes in the road. You can force dry it with a
heat gun or hair dryer abd sometimes get some really convincing
cracks.
I have laid a small piece of plastic brick sheet under the plaster and
then make some holes here and there and it looks like those streets
that have been poured over the brick ones.

I've spent quite a bit of time looking at cracks , holes in the road
and what you find lying beside the raod. You will most always find
gravels and smale pieces of asphalt and concrete....even a tennis shoe
, a shovel or pieces of tires that come off big trucks. Sometimes a
groundhog eating things he finds beside the road. Sometimes mailboxes
and no house anywher to be seen.

I do some strange things at times. My wife has finally gotten used to
me constantly looking at rock cliffs , holes in blacktop roads ,
pointing out to her how oddlooking that last crack or pothole was ,
kicking up rocks and gravels and picking up twigs and things
everywhere we walk.
Not sure if she will ever understand when I come running up to her all
excited " Honey , look what I found " and have nothing in my hand but
an odd looking rock or twig. One time I told her to look out the back
window , then the windshield and see the differnce in the color of the
blacktop LOL This is true in some of the southwester states , but , so
much for that.

Here is where I would say you need to get some pics of roads and side
roads , both concrete and asphalt.
Look at them very closely. For years I looked at highways but never
really paid attention to what colors are there. I think if you look
very closely you'll see colors and shades  you never noticed before.
Just do your own thing now and if you mess up you can always go over
it again.

On concrete I start with a wash of about 65 % percent and 35% light
grey. Again , look at some pictures. You will find all the above
colors and even some shades of yellow.
As far as coloring and lines there are many ways to do it and this
really where the rubber meets the road (pun intended)

The only black highway I have ever seen is when the asphalt is being
poured and a few hours thereafter , after that it's always varying
shades of grey and in some cases almost white in spots.
There are some really good articles out there in the magazines and
books that go into great detail on the coloring and I would highly
recommend  Dave Frary's " How to build realistic Scenery". A great
book and worth every cent IMO.

Not trying to act like an expert here for I'm certainly not. This is
what works for me.
For asphalt , I start with a light grey thinned very little because I
want to seal the plaster a little so it won't absord the colors that
follow.
The color of light grey primer works very well and I have used the
cheap aerosol cans. Just need to mask everything close by.

I imagine many of you have got bored before you reach this part , but
just in case you didn't I'll continue.
At this point an airbrush is invaluable. I always use an airbrush now
and have for more years than I like to think about ,but I have done it
with a small paint brush. If you don't have an airbrush here is where
chalks really come in handy. Light grey , dark grey , black , which
will be used very little and a couple shades of light tan. Also need
some white to help tone down those places where you ended up a little
too dark. All these colors come in the sets you can buy at craft
stores , Wal Mart and other dept stores.  

For the lines I make a mask of light card stock. I use a straight edge
and cut a couple slots in it approx 1/32 " for HO and spaced the same.
This will be approx a scale 3" with 3" separation .This is close
enough. Here it's better to be  a little small than large, IMO ,
especially when you take photos. I'usually cut one with breaks in it
and one without.
As for the curves it's usually as easy to actually mask rather than
cut one to match the curves.

Here I use an airbrush and I thin the paint to the point that it's
almost a stain. Again , I'm always looking for a used highway , not a
freshly paved one.....unless you want to model a freshly paved and
painted one.
When I paint the lines I use a little more paint in some areas than in
others . I try to get a varigated look so it won't look newly
painted...again...unless you're modeling a newly painted. :-)
In areas where the center line is crossed often , such as driveways or
intersections I paint a little lighter.

I know some people will say this is way too much trouble to do
highway. As I said before , this is what works for me and the other
methods mentioned here also work.
Many times though , all those little details , some be called
subliminal I suppose , all added together make a scene look so much
better but it's not readily apparent just what the differences are.

I hope I haven't been too boring here and I certainly am not trying to
criticize any of the other methods. Each and every one of us have a
different way of doing things and different priorities.
Mine are in the details.

Ken Day

I experimented with several materials for paving over track in the
street. The three finalists were Durham Water Putty, Smooth-It and
Hydrocal. I thought Durham the best and have not been disappointed.
There are some pictures at
http://home.comcast.net/~Abrams_railroad/Street_trackage.html.

Plain molding plaster makes pretty good asphalt when colored with
Rainbow dry color Lime Proof Black. A good realistic approach is to
pave with a washed-ou grey and then apply a patch made using more
color in the plaster.

While not very good for trackage, I also use DAP Asphalt Filler and
Sealant in a calking gun for asphalt streets.