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Road work |
Step-by-step techniques create a realistic look to your paved roads
by Gary Hoover
Parking lots and intermodal yards are created using the same basic technique and materials as roads. To simulate the paved area between the rails, a .030 styrene sheet was cut to width, glued in place and painted.
Gary Hoover
| | Trains may be the stars of our model railroad empire but the scenery certainly plays an important supporting role.
Roads are usually an integral part of the scenery. Often the roads on our layouts are not modeled as well as the other scenery, and when this occurs the entire scene may suffer.
Modeling roads is easy, fun and inexpensive. You probably already have many of the materials and skills to model a realistic road.
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Most of the materials used to make roads are inexpensive and easily obtained at the hobby shop or hardware store. Lightweight joint compound, which shrinks less than regular joint compound, is used for the road surface.
Gary Hoover
| | Basic construction
The main ingredient I use to model roads is joint compound, sometimes called dry wall mud. I’ve found the “lightweight” joint compound works better than regular joint compound because the lightweight material has less shrinkage which means fewer “mud” cracks when it dries. Lightweight joint compound can sometimes be difficult to find at the hardware store, so don’t hesitate to use the regular joint compound if that's all that is available.
Regardless of the type, the big advantage of joint compound over other materials such as plaster is the longer amount of time it takes for joint compound to set. Plenty of time is available to form and smooth out the road before it dries.
The best base surface for a road is either wood or Styrofoam. I prefer the white beadboard Styrofoam because it is inexpensive and is easy to dig out for features commonly found along roads such as drainage ditches, culverts and bridges.
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After the width guidelines are drawn on the base, spread the joint compound with a trowel to a thickness of about 1/8 to 1/4 inch. A light mist of plain water helps smooth and shape the road’s contour.
Gary Hoover
| | Foam bases also allow gentle rises and dips in the road surface. Perfectly flat roads are very rare in the full-size world and don’t look very realistic on our model railroads.
Before laying the road surface, the width must be determined and marked. Roads come in a variety of widths. Country roads are usually narrower than urban roads. Often on our layouts, we have to selectively compress what we are trying to model and roads are usually no exception.
I’ve found that by placing some scale vehicles along the road's route helps me judge what width road looks correct. On my HO layout, I generally make my two-lane roads about 3 to 3.5 inches wide.
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When the road is dry, a slight crown is added using various grades of sandpaper. Sand the edges of the road more than the middle to form the crown. Keep a vacuum handy to remove the sanding dust.
Gary Hoover
| | Once the width of the road has been marked on the base, the joint compound is applied directly to the base using a trowel that is approximately as wide as the road. A light mist of water sprayed on the joint compound helps to spread, smooth and form the road surface.
The thickness of the joint compound needs to be just enough so that a small crown can be sanded in the road later. For HO roads, usually 1/8 to 1/4-inch thick is good. The thicker the joint compound is laid, the greater the tendency is for mud cracking to occur.
Joint compound usually takes at least two to three days to dry depending on the thickness. Once the road surface doesn’t feel “cool” to the touch, it’s ready to be sanded. I generally used three different grades of sandpaper starting with a course grade such as No. 60 followed by a fine grade like No. 150 and then finishing with No. 220 very fine.
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After sanding is complete, there may be some small cracks and holes that need to be filled using a little more joint compound. When dry, sand the patched areas smooth with #220 grit sandpaper.
Gary Hoover
| | The courser paper allows the crown in the road surface to be quickly shaped and the smoother paper removes any marks caused by the course paper. A small vacuum cleaner helps keep the sanding dust under control and also reveals cracks, air bubble holes and other irregularities in the surface. These irregularities should be patched with a little more joint compound and, when dry, sanded smooth with very fine sandpaper.
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True Value’s “rocky gray” flat latex paint is applied to represent an asphalt road. If you are modeling a concrete surface, try Floquil’s “concrete” or “aged concrete” colors. Always practice on some scrap areas before applying paint to the road on your layout.
Gary Hoover
| | Painting
Road colors vary considerably depending on the material from which the road is constructed, its age, and other factors. I’ve found the easiest road color to duplicate and weather is asphalt.
Newer asphalt roads are usually darker than older ones, but in either case can be represented by the darker shades of gray. Flat latex paint is available in many shades of gray in most hardware stores. I’ve found True Value’s Easy One acrylic latex flat “rocky gray” works well to simulate asphalt. Concrete roads tend to be lighter when new and turn darker with age.
Floquil’s “concrete” or “aged concrete” works nicely for this type of road.
Regardless of the type or shade of paint used, test it on a practice section before painting the actual road on the layout. The shade of wet paint and dry paint can vary considerably so don’t be too hasty to declare victory for your chosen paint shade until the paint is completely dry.
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Before applying the Scale Scenics stripe material, spray adhesive is applied to the sticky side of the stripe to help keep the stripe down on the painted road surface. Tape the ends of the stripe onto a piece of newspaper, apply a light coat of spray adhesive and then immediately apply the stripe to the road surface.
Gary Hoover
| | Stripes, details and weathering
Stripes are a necessary detail for any road or parking lot. Scale Scenics makes several different colors and styles of road stripes in HO scale. For other scales, various width stripes can often be found in hobby shops that deal in model airplane supplies.
While all of the Scale Scenics stripes have a self-adhesive backing and could be applied directly out of the package, I’ve found that an additional light coat of spray adhesive helps them stick better to the road surface. Just be careful when applying the stripes so that you don’t pull the paint up from the road surface if the stripe doesn’t go down correctly the first time. Usually, if the paint is thoroughly dry and the stripe segments are applied in lengths of about 2 feet or less, there will be no problem with paint lifting.
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Road markings are easily applied using S&S Hobby Products brass stencils and flat white spray paint. Mask the road surface around the stencil with wax paper. Don’t apply any masking tape directly to the road surface because it might pull the paint up! To avoid paint running under the stencil, apply several very light “mist” coats of paint rather than one or two heavy coats.
Gary Hoover
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Tar lines can be represented using a black ball point pen.
Gary Hoover
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Airbrushing thinned Floquil grimy black will take the shine off the stripes and give the road a weathered look. Apply the weathering gradually and be careful not to over-weather.
Gary Hoover
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The above articles is the property of and is
the copyright of Kalmbach
Publishing Co. |
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