What do people recommend for road -- vehicle not train! -- construction? I am especially interested in dirt, gravel, etc. rather than hard surface. Thanks!
I make mine out of concrete, about 1" thick. Then I use dirt colored exterier paint as glue and paint the road dirt brown, then apply a good coat of sifted dirt on top of the wet paint. Wait 24 hours and then vaccuum it off. Looks good for a couple of years. If you want ruts in the dirt road use a popcycle stick to carve them in the wet concrete. You can also use mortar. My roads are usually made out of left over concrete after I have poured some concrete roadbed. Sometimes I get a couple of feet, sometimes 6" of road at a time.
Maybe take a look at this: http://grw.trains.com/en/sitecore/content/Home/How%20To/Construction%20and%20Landscaping/2006/04/Realistic%20roads.aspx
Tar paper!! looks real!!
It's very hard for me to believe that tar paper looks like a dirt road.
I am planning on using asphalt roofing shingles. I cut one out to see how it looked, and it looks like a gravel road. plus, they are really weather proof.
I built mine out of asphalt patch mix laid in between lawn edging material and tamped smooth.
Rex
Are you saying you want your road to actually be made of dirt/gravel, or just that you would like it to look like a dirt/gravel road?
If the latter, I'd recommend high strength mortar, colored with concrete pigments and textured appropriately. On my road I made a reinforced concrete foundation about 1.5"-2" thick, then added the mortar on top of that.
Asphalt shingles have one drawback. Dogs and chickens like to "file their nails" on it. If no dogs or chickens you are good to go.
Tom Trigg
For a dirt road use...dirt
I use a piece of wood 8 5/8" wide and simply scrape the ground to form the roads. Easy to do, looks good, and not permanent if you change things up. After heavy rains I have to "re-pave" with the piece of wood, but not hard to do.
Matt from Anaheim, CA and Bayfield, COClick Here for my model train photo website
maybe, take a look at this
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