Recently I got a couple of old Mantua flatcars from a friend. They both looked rather toylike with the scale ten inch high lip around the tops of them. I cut the tops down and leveled them with wallboard joint compound. After they had dried I repainted them both teal blue and flattened the finish with Matte-Finish.
The two flats went from this:
To this:
I needed a couple of gravel roads and kinda turned the glued down sandpaper idea on it's ear. I made a basic roadway with wallboard joint compound and gave it a semi-smooth appearance. After it had dried I spread 1:1 white glue over it and applied a generous layer of fine WS gray ballast. I finished up by sprinkling a little green blended turf on it.
Here's my gravel road:
The two flats went from this:

To this:

I needed a couple of gravel roads and kinda turned the glued down sandpaper idea on it's ear. I made a basic roadway with wallboard joint compound and gave it a semi-smooth appearance. After it had dried I spread 1:1 white glue over it and applied a generous layer of fine WS gray ballast. I finished up by sprinkling a little green blended turf on it.
Here's my gravel road:
