Making Roads

[wb2002]

Anyone know of a product I can obtain from store like Lowes to use instead of Scenics's Smooth-It" to make roads on my layout? I don't live near a hobby shop and the one that is closet will not have it in stock.

Thanks

wb2002

[timhar47]

Articles used to talk about this product - Durham's Rock Hard Water Putty. Also Sculptamod is available on Amazon Prime. And there is the tarpaper method - the hobby shop product is a 36" roll 3 pieces of painted tarpaper, but one could always cut their own at a cheaper cost.

http://www.homedepot.com/buy/durham-s-rock-hard-du-4-4-lb-water-putty-du-4.html

[Doneldon]

wb-

Lowe's has several things you can use for roads. I like sandpaper. Use very fine standard paper to represent concrete roads (you can use paint to change the shade plus it weathers easily) and the dark gray Tri-M-Ite or equivalent to represent black top. Roads, even blacktop, are made with expansion joints so you don't need to worry about having to piece your roads together. The Durham's putty Tim mentioned is a good product but it is, indeed, rock hard. That makes it prone to cracking if there is any flexing in your layout. That isn't usually a major problem with permanent layouts but it is for portable pikes and modules. I prefer to use vinyl spackle as it has just a little give. It's extremely white, though, so you'll want to use stains or washes on it. I think that gives a better result than paint because it maintains the texture. Spackle also works for dirt roads if you "drive" some vehicles through it before it dries. Building centers also usually carry gaffers' tape which can make a credible macadam road. It has an extremely low profile, however, which makes it better for parking lots, IMHO. You have to build something up beneath it to make a believable road. This can be done with several layers of masking tape, a sheet of balsa or the putty or spackle. Be sure to get a uniform surface if you use the plastic materials for the bulk of the road.

I hope these ideas help. Good luck with your project and please share your results with us.

                                                                                                                                         -- D

[Piyer]

Since others have covered the more traditional methods, I'll throw out one that a buddy of mine did a few years back, not as part of a model railroad, but for an architectural art exhibit. He made the base of the streets out of plaster of Paris with a dollop of black paint to tint it a light-to-medium grey. After that had cured, he gave the roads a coating of blackboard paint - thinned, if I recall correctly - in a splotchy pattern so as to break up the uniformity. He then took advantage of the blackboard paint to add lining and weathering with chalk, which he then sealed with Tester's dullcote.   

[bapguy]

I used Durhams putty on several roads on my layout. one road crosses 2 tracks that are about 15" apart. The hard part was getting the consistency of the mixxed putty right. I learned that a thicker consistency worked best.  I mixed several small batches at different consistencies and used a scrap pice of wood to lay the road. This way I found the best consistency to use.  Joe

[bionicjcs]

The guy with the tar paper has one of the best and certainly cheapest methods. It is properly called roofing felt.  You can get a whole roll of 15lb felt at lowes or anywhere for I think around 15 bucks.  All you have to do is take a ruler and paint pen to do your lines.  thing I like best is you can cut out your curves with no seam as the roll is 4 ft wide.

[electrical whiz kid]

Hi Doneldon;
I have, in the past (and dread doing it again) have used balsa strips when I am doing track in the steet.  I have alss toyed with the ideaof just layong rail on its side and going that way, but I think that might be  little hard to do.When I was at Wheeler Field in Hawaii, I noticed some three-foot trackwork running across THE END OF THE RUNWAY over by Kunia Road.  OK, back to the track.  I have used balsa, the thinnest strip I can find, and pin it in place beside the rail, then doing the putty.  The first time I evr did it was a disaster, but then I got better at it.  The hardest part is cleaning it up after ward, and trying to pull the stripwood out in one piece without wrecking the plastering job-or breking off the balsa.
Rich C.

[Doneldon]

Hi Doneldon;
I have, in the past (and dread doing it again) have used balsa strips when I am doing track in the street.  I have also toyed with the idea of just laying rail on its side and going that way, but I think that might be  little hard to do.When I was at Wheeler Field in Hawaii, I noticed some three-foot trackwork running across THE END OF THE RUNWAY over by Kunia Road.  OK, back to the track.  I have used balsa, the thinnest strip I can find, and pin it in place beside the rail, then doing the putty.  The first time I evr did it was a disaster, but then I got better at it.  The hardest part is cleaning it up after ward, and trying to pull the stripwood out in one piece without wrecking the plastering job-or breking off the balsa.
Rich C.

Wiz-

I'm sorry it has taken me so long to reply to your post but it was off the bottom of my screen and I didn't see it until just now.

I'm thinking that you could use square styrene strips coated with mold release as both protection for the rail slots and forms to shape them. Just butter the plaster right up to the styrene and then pull it out once the plaster has hardened. This probably wouldn't work for curved crossings because the styrene wouldn't be flexible enough. However, you could probably still use the basic idea on curves if you used thin styrene strips on the curves. Just use them the same as if you were building a spline subroadbed.

                                                                                               -- D

[Balrog21]

WB, you can always order the woodland scenics off of eBay...lots of hobby stores competing for business so there are plenty of places to find it! Gook luck and as mentioned before me, show us your results in the Show us Your layout thread in the General Discussion thread!

[Brian1975]

Anyone know of a product I can obtain from store like Lowes to use instead of Scenics's Smooth-It" to make roads on my layout? I don't live near a hobby shop and the one that is closet will not have it in stock.

Thanks

wb2002

Order your secenery stuff from an online hobby store

[wb2002]

Thanks guys for all the wonderful ideas. Back in 96' I got involved with this hobby. I made my layout on a 4x8 with a 4x6 attached to one end. It was (I thought) nice. I then put the hobby on hold in 2000 because I moved to another state and just a couple of months ago decided to get involved again and extended the layout size to 2 4x8's (which I would call a 4x12 ?). It is a 4x8 with another 4x8 attached ("L" shape). Anyway, when I first started in 96', I used some road making kit that involved using some styrene, paint, and something to sprinkle on paint before it dried to simulate blacktop, and a little roller to press the sprinkling into the paint.  I am again now trying to repair roads and make a couple of new ones over some tracks. I have tried using plaster of paris, which works pretty good and "Fiber reinforced duct sealant" (bad idea). Please don't laugh too hard - I am learning. I am recovering without having to lay down new tracks.

I have one new question. Is there a tool or some improvised device I can use to clean off only top of each rail without damaging adjacent roadway?

wb2002

[GtrsnTrains]

What I've done is put some cheap acrylic paint into some common hardware store spackle, mixed thoroughly, and spread it onto a street-width piece of foam-board.  The thickness of the foamboard I bought is comparable to the thickness of my cork+track hieght, so the grade-crossings are pretty close for realism.  The foamboard/spackle street are them glued onto my layout and blended accordingly.  This is very similar to the plaster method metioned earlier.
If I should accidentally scratch my street the color is all the way through so no worries.  I have a 'street' in concrete color, then once that was laid down I have the same mix only in asphalt color for the area near the rails, as in real life (non-rubber grade crossing...I model the rural 50's).  Use it to patch the low spots too after some sanding for real-life asphalt (and therefore darker gray) pothole filler.
If you get the colors right it looks great.