Pavement - a neat trick

[spitfire]

Here's a little trick I picked up quite by accident for making pavement.

Because I have a base of homasote, the texture has to be covered. I use spackle because it's lightweight and easy to work with.

I lay it on with a spreader and use a fairly light coat. Initially, the first pass or so tends to leave gaps with irregular edges. Here's the trick: instead of filling those gaps I leave them. Once painted they make very convincing potholes. Sprinkle a little fine ballast to simulate gravel.

Also, for modelling industrial areas where the paved areas often meet up with bare ground, don't be too careful with the edges. Draw yourself a guideline but don't use anything else to define the edges - just use the spreader. The variations give it a quite realistic appearance.

The first pic shows just how carelessly I do the spackle.

The second one shows how it turns out. (Note there's a curb for part of the driveway but not at the right corner)

Val

 

[MasonJar]

Cool tip Val. What do you use to colour the spackle once it is dry?

I have to get to the roads on my layout at some point soon...

Andrew

 

[spitfire]

Andrew I use Woodland Scenics Top Coat. It may be a little more expensive than house paint, but it has a very neat feature. Once it's dry you can sand it, which gives a very realistic colour of weathered pavement. Or you can leave it for that freshly paved look.

Val

 

[jon-monon]

Neat Val! :thumb:

 

[Drew1125]

Cool tip, Val!
And very conving looking asphalt!
:thumb: :thumb:

 

[Tyson Rayles]

:thumb:

 

[sumpter250]

Val,
This one I'm going to file for future reference! :thumb:
Pete

 

[aartwmich]

Niiiiccccceee! Great work Val..and great pictoral examples. :thumb:

 

[shamus]

Good tip Val, well thought out.:thumb: :thumb:
Shamus

 

[Ralph]

Great ideas! I use spackle too but have sweated the irregularities and kept adding layers until the roads were smooth. Never occurred to me to have pot holes or fill them with gravel! I've used a Woodland Scenics stone color tint to make more of a concrete road but I like your color better for streets and pavement. One trick I picked up in MR was to simulate newer pavement covering old brick streets. Place a small piece of plastic brick sheeting down first, cover it with spackle but leave a hole so the brick shows through. I've done this on one location. I'll try to remember to photograph it next time I take pics.
Nice work Val!
Ralph

 

[Arlaghan]

Great work! Love this technique.

Got a question for you... how durable is this when it dries? Do you think I could use this technique for my NTRAK module? Would it survive the hardships of travel?

 

[Vic]

Great Val:thumb: Ain't it funny what starts out as a mess turns into a realistic model

 

[Matthyro]

Thanks for the tip Val. Looks great and you were the one to think of it. Well done

 

[Woodie]

Was wondering how you did that, Val. Thanks for that. I'll keep it in mind. :thumb:

 

[CN1]

Great tutorial Val. .:thumb: :thumb: :thumb:

 

[RailRon]

I tried to put down a bit of a road on a sample piece of landscape base (in my case a cork insulation sheet) - and it looked lousy. And I used soooo much care to get a nice, even surface...

And now you come and show us to slop down that spackle stuff (well, more or less ) - and it looks terrific!

Thanks for the hint, Val! I'll try it as soon as I get the opportunity to dive back into my train room...

Ron