Wednesday 30 April 2014

Dirt Roads.

 I have finally gotten around to making a post about my roads! After an exchange with another blogger, I decided to follow his basic concept for road building. I ran to ASDA and picked up a packet of A4 sized felt sheets for £2. Cutting some of these into strips, I decided to experiment by just putting one layer of bath sealant over them. This is tough on the old hands, as I squeeze the sealant out, but on the flip side I finally get to play with one of those gun looking things.

For my first batch, I decided to just paint onto the one layer, and hey presto, they look good. No need for other layers. I scored some wheel ruts into them using the knife I applied the sealant with. 

The paints are just some generic craft acrylics I picked up at the works. Some sort of burnt umber colour, and a lighter shade with no name.


Below you can see the detail. Most of this is just naturally how the sealant formed. 


You can also see how flexible they are. I can bend them over hills if necessary. The only problem is that you can still see the felt colour on some of the edges. I try to cover this up, but it doesn't always work. 


I now need to make some curved sections, and intersections, to give me the variety needed for dirt roads in WW2 Europe. I am sure their little lanes weren't a grid system.

2 comments:

  1. Very nice roads! You should add some static grass.

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    Replies
    1. I am tempted to, and probably will experiment with at least one of them. I just like how I could possibly use these in a winter setting too.

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