OO road surfaces

[billtee]

I'm trying (!) to make a decent-looking roadway - two lanes with double white lines between.

I've tried matt black onto the primed timber surface, but (a) it is too black, and (B) it is not matt enough - it looks almost satin black!

What do you do?

Any answers most welcome, because I'm at the tearing hair out stage of frustration!

Bill

[PWSlack]

Pure white and pure black are overkill for modelling. If one looks at a tarmac-coated road surface in daylight, the colour is a middle-grey with a hint of brown in it. Try mixing a few Humbrols together at the roadside until the correct mix is found, then adjust the mix slightly for whatever artificial lighting is in use, bearing in mind that there are a lot of greens and blues in daylight and very few in tungsten lighting. Take notes of the mixture, obviously, so it can be reproduced.

 

And stay away from Dulux Brilliant White too. Those lines need to be subdued - maybe with a dollop of road surface colour.

 

Go for the perceived colour, rather than what it says on the tin. This is an area where, if it looks right, it is right.

[Torper]

Jim S-W on this forum makes the best 4mm urban roads I've ever seen. I suggest that you have a look at his postings in the "Road Marklings" thread in the "Scenery Structures and Transport" section in the Skills and Knowledge Centre of this forum (I'd give you a link to it, but don't know how to!)

 

DT

[Jonathan]

I'm trying (!) to make a decent-looking roadway - two lanes with double white lines between.

I've tried matt black onto the primed timber surface, but (a) it is too black, and ( B) it is not matt enough - it looks almost satin black!

What do you do?

Any answers most welcome, because I'm at the tearing hair out stage of frustration!

Bill

 

Do I assume that you are painting directly onto the timber surface? If so, may I suggest that you make use of Sandtex masonry paint (it's available in small tester tins and in a variety of shades) to create the texture of the road surface first. It doesn't really matter which colour you use (I always use the mushroom brown). Stipple the paint on, as opposed to "painting" it onto your surface. Thereafter paint the resultant textured surface with a mixture of paints, poster/water colours for the tarmac. Remember nothing is "uniform" black - it's a mixture of lighter and darker hues.. Make the paint darker at the edges and lighter in the middle (where there is/would be more usage). This technique works very well on the Devonshire lanes on my layout, albeit they are not macadamised and road markings (other than 1930s road signs) are non-existant..

 

Jonathan

[HLT 0109]

For tarmac colour, I like the results I get with B&Q's Grey Slate matte emulsion which is available in 50ml tester pots for 98p (less 10% on a Wednesday if you're a diamond customer). I find it accepts quite a lot of dilution with water making it even better value. The empty pots make very useful containers too, with a snap-shut lid.

[bigherb]

I use 1200 or 1000 grit wet and dry paper.

[Dukedog]

For tarmac colour, I like the results I get with B&Q's Grey Slate matte emulsion which is available in 50ml tester pots for 98p (less 10% on a Wednesday if you're a diamond customer). I find it accepts quite a lot of dilution with water making it even better value. The empty pots make very useful containers too, with a snap-shut lid.

 

 

Me Too!

 

Seriously though, I have found the same sort of paint works for me, The beauty of emulsions is that you can mix in some artists or Humbrol acrylics to vary the shade slightly.

BTW, I don't paint onto bare wood. I glue down a layer of card first. The sort that cereal packets are made of, this gives a much better surface to paint IMHO.

 

I'm not too keen on emery or wet&dry papers either, I have used them on platforms for tarmac but have always ended up painting the stuff to tone it down.

 

You can also get a brass fret of drain and manhole covers to add more detail to your roads. (I got mine from Scalelink)

 

Here's one i did earlier!

 

 

 

Hope this helps.

 

Cheers!

Frank

[stewartingram]

Scalescenes road surface works for me, easy to join so as to show the imperfections of real life such as infill to trenches.

[HLT 0109]

I too dislike painting on to bare wood. For me, a layer of plaster bandage, carefully rubbed while wet to fill in the appearance of the mesh, serves to mark out the route of the road and give a typically uneven surface. It takes the paint well too. I haven't tried the drains and manhole covers yet.

 

Harold.

[Guest jim s-w]

See tutorial here http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/29554-road-markings/

 

Pic copyright the scalefour society, used with permission

 

Hth

 

Jim

[AMJ]

As Jim will point out roads are not flat many have a camber on them so that rain water will run to the kerbs and then into the drains.

 

Probably get away with flat roads in the scales that we work to.

[wamwig]

As Jim will point out roads are not flat many have a camber on them so that rain water will run to the kerbs and then into the drains.

 

Probably get away with flat roads in the scales that we work to.

 

Indeed being a highway engineer, although not at the moment (very very few jobs!), the current UK minimum crossfall is 2.5% (1 in 40) with a minimum longitudinal fall of 0.5% (then things start getting complicated on bends with superelevation), of course not all old roads meet this criteria but even the Romans knew you needed a crossfall to get the water away. I'm trying to 'design' a model of a bus station with correct (or at least as correct as I can get) crossfalls at the moment and even for me its a nightmare, although not currently working in that area it would be a bit easier with the correct computer help! However as you say for most situations a flat road (or maybe with just a hit of camber) will suffice!

[billtee]

Thank you, all, for your suggestions. Regarding camber on roads, you ought to see some of the roads here in Warwickshire. Camber? What camber? we have puddles all over the roads which helps keep my car clean! All right, cleaner!

Anyway, I tried really fine grade emery paper, but wasn't very impressed because (1) too black, (2) too even. Tried mixing grey/black/white matt paints which gave acceptable results, but then painted onto SEALED wood base, and it wasn't very good - too flat (ie, smooth) for my liking. Then tried painting onto card bases, but the joins between the sheets was hard to disguise.

Eventually I decided to purchase some Scalescenes road surfaces sheets, and they seem to be 'the business' - and because they are thin (I'm using 80gsm ordinary inkjet paper) they can be cut with overlaps so that the join will be exactly the same on both sheets. The texture of the ordinary inkjet paper seems reasonable, too.

At first, for the road sub-base, I used 3" wide, 1/16" balsa, coated with PVA on both sides to seal it. This wasn't such a good idea, because the sheet still warped, only slightly, but it was visible. I thought this was a Good Thing, but when I measured the amount of 'lift' in the centre of the strip (which was giving the camber), it was far too much, so that went out the window.

Now I'm using high grade dollshouse wood strips, still 1/16" thick by 3" wide, because they are a different (harder?) wood and much finer grained. I've still got to make more road surfaces before I can butt them together at a T-junction, but I've built several dollshouses for my late missus and some smoothed out flexible wall sealer seems to do the trick to give an invisible join, so I don't imagine I'll have any problems at the T-junction. My one 'problem', if you can call it that, is that the T-junction isn't at 90 degrees, it is skewed slightly, and the Scalescenes road-markings are all at 90 degrees. I haven't yet tried cutting the double-dashed lines to the angle required, so that's something still to do (tonight?).

All the best, and a lovely Christmas to you all,

Bill

[Sam Moss]

On our club layout, most of the roads are towards the back of the layout so we siimply use matt black from Wilko's and after a month or so of dust it looks pretty realistic.

[roundhouse]

These days I tend to use styrene laminated together in various layers to reduce the chance of warping or lifting. Using styrene makes it easier to build pavements and stick figures down (if they are styrene). Any joints can be filled and sanded before painting with various shades of Humbrol grey enamels. The surface is then gloss varnished where the road markings are to be placed using white or yellow waterslide decals from Fox (their various packs of lining decals). Once road markings are down then the surfaces can be matt varnished.

If the styrene is neatly cut at baseboard joints on a portable layout then they tend to be stronger than filler or paper. Any damage to the surface can then easily be touched up with the relevant tin of enamel paint.

 

The only drawback to this is if you have a large area of roadway to do, it does cost a bit more to build. I also use styrene for other surfaces such as concrete with the construction joints then scribed in to the surface after painting then a wash of 'dirt' highlights these.

 

When modelling N scale I do not generally add the camber as it is not very noticeable in most situations in my opinion.

 

Ian

[JeffP]

Another vote for wet-or-dry.

[richcook89]

I use wall tile adhesive mixed with black paint and spread onto the baseboard about 1mm thick. Altering the amount of black can make either tarmac or concrete shades.

[billtee]

Many thanks for your ideas, lads! I hadn't considered using styrene sheet, but it is a definite contender if (if!) I can paint a road surface which looks as convincing as those of the ScaleFour society, I will be a happy chappy!

Bill

[firefly9]

Can i suggest using wilkinsons very fine wet and dry paper. even the right shade.

[PhilJ W]

I have used mounting board for road surfaces. The charcoal grey colour is ideal for tarmac. The only problem is it looks shiny and new so to tone it down I brushed on the water used for cleaning my paintbrushes (I use acrylics for most of my model painting). By carefully cutting out sections you can add such items as photo etched drains and manhole covers.