Examples?

Wilkenw, 

Your explanation is pretty straightforward, and I would like to see some photos as you go through the various layers. 

Might even make a good article for the magazine. 

Don’t want to crash the party....but

since no photos have been posted to show results I will post what I am working on. A couple of these have been posted before but illustrate what the author is talking about (really, I can only guess). The following are currently in progress and are done with paintbrushes and cosmetic sponges to apply color. Oops   

Rick

Rick, have you seen my self-esteem anywhere?  I think it dropped to the floor when I saw your photos.  Must be here somewhere...

Super impressive work my friend!  Words fail me!

@Rick

OK party crasher...

give it up...what's the technique?  Excellent looking stuff man!

I have got a couple of streets I need to finish in black top and I cant seem to get the color - like you have got nailed!

My concrete roads are good - but black top - nope

thanks!!

Joe

I’ve seen your self-esteem hanging out with mine over at the Crow’s Nest. Every time I look at your high bridge build my self esteem gets all in a snit and goes on a bender. Why they gotta pick the Crow’s Nest is beyond me as it is a real dump. I gave up going to get them and just let the pair get it out of their system and find their way back home. With all the beautiful work being shown around here I think they are going to have to get a little tougher.

Thanks for your kind words my friend and it is always a joy to see what you are up to.

fritzg

Thanks for your kind comments. I recently outlined the methods I used , at least as much as I remember, in a series of emails which I’ll find and post hear. It may be a little disjointed but I think the basics are covered.

The road is built using 2mm EVA foam sheets which were purchased from sandy-foam on ebay. The foam was painted and then striped. All the asphalt cracks are drawn on with artist’s pens shown in the picture. Turpentine with a small amount of raw umber oil paint was carefully added to the cracks. Decals were then applied. The road has a crown of small strips of foam applied down the centerline under the road surface. Chalks from Brandon and Pan Pastel applied and then entire surface is hit with dullcote.

Hope this helps (other things were done but this is what stuck. Don’t remember specifically what type/color paints....it was painted over several times to get the color near right.

I forgot one very important thing. Except for a few small details All painting and chalking were done with a triangle of foam used for applying cosmetics

I’m really bad about keeping

I’m really bad about keeping notes on color. One of the main reasons is I do a lot of mixing and use many different mfgr’s paints. Looking at the scraps of road that have around with base color on them and remembering that the foam soaks up a lot of paint as it dries here’s what I’m pretty sure I did. The base coat is probably standard latex house paint. I use a couple of different dark charcoal colors from the same paint family from Sherwin Williams latex house paint. It took several coats as the color changed as it dried.  Colors were “fate”and “stone cutter” At the price of hobby paints a quart of house paint is so much more economical for large coverage. After drying I probably sponged some hobby paint on to give random variations. Vallejo is animal) in  excellent paint for small areas for color changes. I use their “panzer” varieties.

Hope that helps.

Also Until you get the foam properly sealed with the acrylic paints you have to hold off on any petroleum based paint.

Photo 1.  R to L. Original black foam strip. One coat paint. Several coats paint.

Photo 2. You can see 90% completed road next to multiple coat base. Base is one of the lightest colors in the finish road. Dark Pan Pastel and black cracks in road give dark contrast. Also I’m rough on the road surface with an exacto knife that lets some of the black foam show through. 

 ; -webkit-background-size: 30px 14px; width: 30px; height: 14px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"> 

Sorry about the

Sorry about the mess.......getting over the flu and don’t have enough active brain cells to sort it out....Rick

Moderator note: Rick, are you pasting from MS Word? If so, you need to use the paste from Word button to clean out all the MS Word formatting ... it drives our forum nuts if you paste directly from Word. Anyhow, we cleaned up your mess ...

@Rick

Hey thanks for the pointers Rick!

Your roads look so real.  This is a good place for me to get started.  I am gonna give it a try and slowly work it to see if I can get close.

Hope you feel better soon!

thanks again.

wow!

Your roads look amazing Rick! Those decals sure worked out well too.

@Rick

Rick, I commented on your roads the other day, and thanks, btw, for the explanation.  

I've been using the 2mm craft foam for a couple of years now.  But I never thought to use the black, then paint it to get the concrete color, then to scribe or scrape off the tiny cracks, so the black shows through.  I had been using white as my base, then darkening it slightly to get the concrete color, then finishing with Pan Pastels and drawing in the cracks with a .005 Micron pen.  Which worked OK, but now I've gotta try your method.  I just happen to have some black foam on hand, and a quart of latex house paint, sort of concrete colored.  Off to the train room!

BTW, another way I've made roads is to use the poster board - the cheap stuff from the Dollar Store.  I remove the paper backing (sometimes, if it is stubborn, I'll either lightly spray paint it, which for some reason makes it easier to peel off after dry), then I have a nice base to sand to shape (crowned).  If you lightly spray the already "naked" poster board with a rattle can of an appropriate gray (I like "latte" from Rustoleum), then it gives the foam a bit more texture.  Followed by weathering with Pan Pastels, etc.

Al Carter

Moderator and Bill

Moderator, Thanks for your help and many apologies. I made that mess on an ipad and was too sick to sort it out on my own.

Bill, the decals are always the cherry on top! I know this guy in Canada that does a beautiful job. I think he rides a horse across the border at midnight to somewhere North Dakota to get the decals to you real quick. You should look him up sometime.....you have a lot in common.

borderline...

So, that would put me in Jail  

The customs port is only open for 8am to 10pm!

But thanks for thinking of me.

First rate work

Your painted "beat up" road is superb.  I'd add one point.  Painting lines in the highway can be very easy --no worry about leaks beneath tape -- just by applying undiluted acrylics right from the tube.  Moreover, they dry to touch in a flash.

Similar to Rick

Funny that this should be brought up, I am just now preparing a demonstration for our club tonight. My technique is the same as Rick’s, using craft foam from Micheals, painting it with layers working from dark to light using acrylic paint, Payne’s gray and raw umber, plus white. I use the cosmetic sponge to apply the paint by dabbing it on.  I put the line down the middle by masking it with post-it notes and dabbing on the white ( or yellow, depending on your era) paint. Also use the post-it notes to mask off rectangular patches and paint them with a darker colour for patches. Then use a knife, pencil and black marker to make cracks, tar strips and some scrapping and digging with the knife gives potholes.