Road Surfaces?

[Doug Dickson]

With reference to a post made in 2008 I enclose a picture of my method of making road surfaces from 5mm foam board,  [Canson is the only one I've found to peel reliably but you're not after a perfect finish] with one paper surface peeled off to represent a lower layer  of large rammed stone, then two or three layers of smaller stones with a crushed stone dressing rolled on top.

Sandpapered to a pleasing camber, then some toy cars driven over it to make ruts, then coated with a Dulux Tester pot of washable emulsion and while still wet a coating of very finely sieved chinchilla dust. Choose which direction the sun principally shines from on your layout and with a skinny brush darken the 'shadow' side of the biggest ruts. Put some of the bigger sievings along the outside where the gravel gets thrown and that should be O.K.

Doug

[This picture has previously been posted on RMWeb]

[kebo66]

Very impressive Doug, looks extremely realistic. Well done.

Keith

[The Sales Team]

Thanks, Doug - that looks good.

That question - which direction does the sun mainly shine on your layout? - is quite a profound one and I think helpful to ask (and decide!) quite early on in planning one's layout.

David.

[Doug Dickson]

Looking from the front inwards, it shines from the right at 45 degrees. It means that as long as I know the orientation and where on the layout a structure may be, the shadows line up.

Unless told otherwise, if I make a model  for someone else I put the sun vertically above.

The simplest shadow to add is a1mm line in waterproof 1mm fibre tip under window sills.

Doug