Well, after trying several "pads" for industries and roads, I looked over at my gray sheet cork in the passenger shed area and thought: "Gee, it sure looks like concrete or pitted macadam...".
I'm not sure if it's to scale or not, but after (over) analyzing with car and truck tires with HO vehicles, it still looked about right so I tried it. I find it dead easy to "vary the scale" using more or less craft paint.
Has anyone else used sheet cork for this purpose on a realistic/museum diorama style layout and found it looked good to them too?
I guess whenever scenicking gets this easy I inherently feel suspicious! ;-) that I'm way off base somehow....and why don't I see it used more?
Your experiences and/or opinions are welcomed. (I'll duck...;-)
Jim
Raised on the Erie Lackawanna Mainline- Supt. of the Black River Transfer & Terminal R.R.
I've painted sheet cork the color of aged concrete and asphalt for roads and parking lots in several areas on our HO scale club layout.
Jim,
The black road in the pic' is 1/8 sheet cork. I used original contact cement to hold it down, two coats on the cork and one on the Homasote. Painted with Woodland Scenic's road system Top Coat Asphalt. Looked pretty good and stood up ok for ten yrs., but I ripped it all out, I'm redoing the whole area and there will be brick street's there. Used to be a large grain elevator complex there with back drop, but I wanted something different. After test fitting and rethinking on the second pic', I decided to take it all out, including a switch and siding. Test fit for third pic, two tracks operable already.
Take Care!
Frank
Thanks for the pics Frank and the comment, Cacole. I guess it IS more common to use sheet cork for pavement than I thought. It's interesting that I've never see it used on many layouts across the country. I'm reassured that it does indeed look scale or close to it now that I see it on yours I feel confident that it's the right choice for these two scenes on my layout.
Thanks, Jim
An advantage of the cork, is that you can lay a considerable area rather quickly, cuts easily and will raise the surface to a desired level. I still perfer plaster, Durabond or sheet styrene for this. Much slower and tedious process and can be somewhat messy. I'm not convinced that the cork surface only painted will scale out to the pavement or concrete look you want. A simple layer skimmed spackle or joint compound may be a better suited finish before painting.
The advantage of plaster, Durabond or other mixture of choice is that you have the ability to control the surface, road crown, broken edges, gouging laying manhole covers and grates as well as scribing cracks, parting lines etc. Plaster can also be dyed w/ powdered dyes before spreading.
Where you have grades, elevation changes, plaster can be shaped much easier than bonding sheet stock.
Modeling B&O- Chessie Bob K. www.ssmrc.org