First of all, what do I make them out of? should I install them before or after scenery? Any other tips are welcome!
Harrison
Homeschooler living In upstate NY a.k.a Northern NY.
Modeling the D&H in 1978.
Route of the famous "Montreal Limited"
My YouTube
I would use styrene or plaster of paris/spackle/something like them. I believe that most of us would use styrene later, but plaster/gypsum products first...or whichever seems to make the most sense to the user. Really it can be done when you want to do it, but you must take pains making scenery encroaching right up to the edges of styrene 'pavement'.
For the gypsum-based roads, you usually create a barrier or form to be filled and then screeded/planed to form the desired surface and look. Dye as necessary, or spray/air-gun the surface and add striping in both cases.
If you craft terrain that can be sanded to a road's profile and geometry, that would work for a country gravel road. Leave berms to the side as a grader would, some potholes...the usual.
For black top roads, I use the back side of a common asphalt shingle,painted to choice.
For dirt/gravel. I paint it fairly thick,then cover with sand/fines from my driveway.
I think paved roads should go infirst, before scenery.Dirt/gravel can go anytime, there not ment to be neat
The best paved roads I have seen were made from Durhams Water Putty. I have bought the putty but have yet to make my own. Just my .
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
I made a paved road on my grandson's small layout using the Woodlands Scenic kit: Smooth-It, temporary edging and black asphalt (just thick acylic paint) topping. It came out fine, no complaints.
On my newer layout, I started adding a road with the WS materials, but had a problem with the first section when it cracked. I think I simply got it on too thin so blame me. I decided to switch to the Durham's Rock Hard Water Putty. You can get cans at Home Depot, rather cheap.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Durham-s-Rock-Hard-DU-1-1-lb-Water-Putty-1-CAN/100184116
I am satified with how it worked out. I used the WS asphalt on most of it but for the "concrete" pad at the fuel business I just mixed hobby acrylic paints to a reasonable color. I have some granular concrete finish material around but have not tried that yet.
My example includes some very thick roads due to track height at crossings. I wish I had used thinner track roadbed.
IMG_4890 by Paul Ahrens, on Flickr
IMG_5042 by Paul Ahrens, on Flickr
IMG_5153 by Paul Ahrens, on Flickr
Paul
Modeling HO with a transition era UP bent
I also like Durham's Water Putty.
It sets up quickly and dries hard. After it's set you can sand it. Add a bit of white vinegar to slow down the setting. I use a foam brush constantly dipped in water to work it continuously while it's setting to get a smooth surface.
It goes on as a tan color. Once it's set I paint it with a wash of gray acrylic paint. If you use a simple color like gray, unmixed, you can easily go back to touch it up and when you extend the road it will be easy to match the color.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
I use sanded tile grout for asphalt, and styrene for concrete. Roads can be added to a new scene or retrofitted later, so work them in however you want.
Rob Spangler
I prefer to use craft foam over sheet styrene for both asphalt and concrete HO scale roads. I first lay out my roads using pieces of cardstock. This allows me to design each side of the road separately, then tape the pieces together to form a template. This also allows me to create templates for any kind of intersection, driveway cut, grade change, etc. without much trouble. Once the template is complete, I trace it onto .040" styrene sheet (I like to buy 4' by 8' sheets as its MUCH cheaper). I cut out the styrene, double check the fit, then use the styrene roadbed as a template to cut out the craft foam sheets. I glue down a thin strip of styrene along each roadway centerline to form a crown, then glue down the styrene roadbed. I the use spray adhesive to glue the craft foam road surface to the styrene roadbed. I have used Woodland Scenics Foam Putty to fill in any seams between pieces of craft foam but another forum member suggested overlapping the ends of two pieces of craft foam and cutting a crooked line through both pieces. Once glued down, the crooked seam can easily be disguised as a large crack or repair in the road surface with little or no filling.
The craft foam surface is easily distressed with expansion seams and cracks. The occaisional bubbles in the craft foam make pretty convincing pot holes, too. Craft foam is partially self healing so you can get pretty aggresive making cracks and seams and still get realistic results. Craft foam takes paint well so you simply paint it as you would any other type of road.
I make my sidewalks from two layers of .040" styrene and simply cut them to fit alongside the edges of my craft foam roads. I scribe expansion joints, curbs and add a few cracks here and there, then add a "concrete" surface texture using fine sandpaper. If my sidewalk separates the road from a building structure, I will usually combine the sidewalk and building "slab" into one piece of styrene. After gluing my sidewalks in place, I put masking tape along the roadway surface about 1 scale foot from the edge of the sidewalk. I then apply a thin bead of caulking into the crack between the roadway and sidewalk, then smooth it with my finger to form the gutters along the curbs. Once the caulking has dried, I then paint the sidewalks and gutters a concrete color, weather as desired, then carefully remove the masking tape from the road surface.
Less mess and great results!
Hornblower