What do people use for road surfaces? I've tried loads of methods; polyfilla, scatter material, painted card but none of it looks quite right.
I have used painted fine ish abrasive paper to reprisent concerete aprons for Aircraft dioramas if that is any help. Might work is painted an 'off-black' for tarmac surfaces.
Another thought might be to try very fine sand scatter for an unmade road / track, or a smooth masionary paint with some sand added. One of the big paint makers (Crown or Dulux) also do what they call an 'ultra-matt' paint which is an interior emulsion with fine sand in it which might do the job - particularly if they do an earth brown!
Hope that helps!
JulienW
Not that I've done any modelling since the last century but I seem to recall using a very watered-down fire cement - Pyruma or something?
I have always used ready mixed plaster type filler, sanded smooth when dry and painted with a suitable emulsion, usually a darkish grey for UK based models and lighter grey for my Austrian alpine based models. When all is dry and a uniform tone of colour is achieved I then air brush a few light coats of weathering onto the road surface to simulate tyre residue, exhaust dirt etc.
My method so far has been to use the woodland scenics road kit (a kind of plaster skimmed between self adhesive tape edgings). Then I paint on a suitable mid grey emulsion (crown test pot from B+Q) and sprinkle talcum powder on whilst still wet (to create some fine texture). Note the paint is also lightened by the talcum powder (and it gets everywhere - but smells nice!). Make sure you wait long enough for the paint to have totally dried before you brush off the talcum as otherwise you'll get streaks. Then I add some weathering powders (grinded down pastels), paint the cess darker grey and finally add some fine scatter and static grass for weeds.
Colin
http://rhydddu.blogspot.com
Try 'wet&dry' paper , change the grade to suit the scale . Cut to shape and use pva glue to stick in place , and to 'weather ' just rub the surface to achieve the finish you want . Hope that makes sense , cheers , very new member ...
I often see the 'wet and dry' method mentioned but the main draw back with this that wet and dry paper comes in relatively small sheets (unless you buy the big bulk rolls) so you have to join various pieces together and it's a total pain disguising the joints.
When you look at a real tarmac surfaced road you realise that they actually have quite a smooth and regular surface (unless they have been patch repaired or poorly maintained for a long time).
A lot of the time obtaining a realistic tarmac finish is down to the painting and weathering.
Darren.
Metcalf do some useful road surface sheets, I have used them on 'Gox Hill Quarries' and again on the new layout.
Peter