From another thread:
doctorwayne I've always used the .060" sheet material for city roads, and then cut and score more of it to use as sidewalks, simply cemented atop the otherwise overly-wide roads... Wayne
I've always used the .060" sheet material for city roads, and then cut and score more of it to use as sidewalks, simply cemented atop the otherwise overly-wide roads...
Wayne
I like this idea but need a tip. Assuming the street was painted first, how do you glue the sidewalks to it? Is it just a matter of scraping a little paint off the street to get a good bond?
Rick
Caulk works well and easy clean up. Use clear acylic.
I use two layers of slightly thinner styrene. The first is just glued to the pink foam base. I then fill the road space with Durham's Water Putty and paint that. I cut the outlines of the structures into the sidewalk layer so the buildings fit into the sidewalk, not on top of it, keeping them in place and eliminating under-building light leaks. I spray paint the top sidewalk pieces gray and mark lines in the "concrete" with a pencil. Then I glue the top pieces of styrene onto the clean lower layer.
if you're drilling holes for streetlamps, fire hydrants, etc., it's better to do that before gluing to keep the sheets from partially separating while drilling.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
hbgatsf I like this idea but need a tip. Assuming the street was painted first, how do you glue the sidewalks to it? Is it just a matter of scraping a little paint off the street to get a good bond?
That's one option. Another would be to mask the road before painting it. I've only used styrene for roads in one town and I had a grass strip between the road and the sidewalks in most places. I glued both roads and sidewalks directly to the plywood. For sidewalks, I used Evergreen sidewalks which are pre-scored styrene sheets. There are different widths but I chose 1/2" squares which are a scale 43 1/2" in HO which is about right for a residential sidewalk. When I lived in the city, the sidewalk in front of my house was 48". Close enough.
hbgatsfAssuming the street was painted first, how do you glue the sidewalks to it? Is it just a matter of scraping a little paint off the street to get a good bond?
It's been so long since I installed the streets and sidewalks that I didn't recall the complete procedure, but a closer look jogged my memory.
With the street cemented in place, I temporarily added the unpainted sidewalks and used them as a straightedge to scribe a light pass with my X-Acto knife.
Using that as a marker, it was fairly easy to paint the street without getting too much paint where the sidewalk was going to be added. Once the paint had dried, I added the sidewalks (scribed to delineate a curb alongside the street, and the joints between the "concrete" segments), and pre-painted.
Most of the streets in the smaller towns on my layout don't have much in the way of sidewalks, and the roads were mostly done using Durabond 90 patching plaster, or modelled as gravel...