BernieTheBolt

Yes indeed, I’ve lived in two of those boroughs and now in a totally different corner of London. I’m thankful for the detailed reply about St. Helier, up until a few years ago I frequented a certain football ground near Bishopsford Road and hope to get into that again soon. In a railway sense those areas conjure up lots of atmosphere, mainly my memories as a kid of the blue/grey and NSE days. By that time a lot of the suburban work was on 455s but I spent many journeys on CIG/VEP units on the main. That’s how I settled on the era for my layout. There’s easier ways into the era now with RTR EMUs and things like the CLASP ScaleScenes building, only two examples but unimaginable a couple of decades ago. I can see exactly the element of street detailing (and I saw an example of the white dog’s business on the ground in Thamesmead a few years ago - it certainly was a blast from the past)! I’m also grateful for the attachments and tips, excellent work and glad to be here on the forum. Thanks again, top stuff : )

Many thanks again for the replies and I’m amazed at the result from the cutter. I didn’t know the cutters could do embossing - I’d imagined them doing straight through cuts only. I’ll have a look around the forum for the discussion on cutters - I’m finding my feet navigating around at the moment. Appreciate the welcome and I can see where this is such an engaging and absorbing hobby - so many ways to do things and so much to add and detail. Much obliged all!

Hello and Good Morning, thanks so much for these, particularly the full article and links - so helpful and I’d have had no idea if it wasn’t for registering at this forum. This looks excellent. I’ve buildings of different ages and looking at current Street View and some older photos can see that tarmac paving was very much in evidence - with the odd bit of old paving here and there. This is the case with both Victorian and 1930s buildings (the areas I’ve looked at are St.Helier Estate and streets around West Croydon) so yes, lots to work with! Thanks again and really appreciated here, cheers : )

Thanks so much for those, and I appreciate the moderators approving the account so quickly, as well as the replies I’ve had. Really gratefully received. I’ll look into the foam method and plastic sheet - it’s got to be better than card. I know a lot of modellers produce great results on the printed texture type of thing but for me it’s not good. Thinking about the replies above will be a great help, thanks so much : )

Hello everyone, first post on here and despite being technically middle aged now I’m quite a newbie at this. I’ve been working on my first layout for just over a year now (a Network SouthEast based one to reflect when I was young) and have arrived at a stumbling block with regards to paving. I’ve tried ScaleScenes sheets mounted to 2mm greyboard and textures from other sites which I’ve edited to suit. I’ve also tried cutting up 1mm card and adding to the greyboard, with not very good results. In this instance PVA distorted the colour (turning things blue in places) and painting over using an acrylic wash gave a very messy finish. I’ve arrived at the conclusion that for me, paving in card doesn’t work, and while card models are good for buildings it doesn’t work for me as a base component. So I’m now looking at embossed materials for this task - the three that are readily visible are Slaters Plastikard, Wills Sheets and laser board from Scale Model Scenery. I’ve worked out that using Slaters 0414 sheets I would need 8 sheets at RRP £3.73 each, using Wills SSMP221 I would need 10 packets of four sheets, RRP £5.75 and with SMS LX232, 10 sheets at £7.99. If there’s any other trusted brands and products out there than can be recommended I’d be really grateful, and if anyone can describe the pros and cons of each of these I’d be appreciative too. There’s quite a big variation in the cost of each product and while I don’t mind this to achieve a decent result I’m mindful of ‘getting what you pay for’ and going for the most expensive which could take me away from a better product which would help me. Thanks so much in advance, and glad to be on board here. Best, Alex