Roads less traveled

I got some roads worked on this weekend.

I started first with the farm crossings.  I got them cut, fit, stained and then sealed them with a liberal coat of  Dullcote. After they were dry I added more ballast in to fill in the gaps left between the floral foam roadbed and the tracks.  Eventually I will tape things off and start applying some brown sanded grout that I used for dirt in the main yard.

I will use the grout to cover the road, the driveway leading up to the farm and around the buildings at the farm.  I'll also try to cover some of the areas between the tracks and the foam hills.  Once that is done I can continue covering the rest of the area with the mixed turf ground foam.

While the farm crossings were drying, I set about to add the crossing for the scrap yard.  I only added the planks between the rails as the styrene would sit right up the outer rails.  After getting it installed, stained and sealed, I worked on painting the styrene road that leads into the scrap yard.  

I shot them with a gray primer for a base coat.  Then using a sponge and several shades of gray and some tannish yellow craft paint, I dabbed the roads with different shades working dark to light, then sealed them with a heavy coat of Dullcote.

I wanted this road to look well used and non-maintained, full of cracks and patches.  The cracks and patches were done using a black fine tipped Sharpie.  For the patches, I used several things: Black Pan Pastels, a gray Sharpie marker and some Tamiya Black Panel liner.  These all gave me different shades for the patches that were put down at different time.

Once everything dried, I started lightly brushing some different colored Pan Pastels across the road.  I used a dark gray down the middle of the road for stains, medium brown along the edges to look like dirt and dust.  Finally I took a small stiff brush and dipped in the Panel Liner and using my finger, I pulled back the bristles so the Panel Liner lightly splattered the road.  Then everything got a heavy coat of Dullcote to seal it all.   I think it turned out ok? 

I originally I had cut the styrene to 1-1/2" wide, but after looking and thinking about it, this is more of a driveway and not a main road, so I cut it down to 1-1/4" wide.  Once I cut the cork with a slope for the shoulders and add some dirt and weeds to each side, I think it'll be fine?  At least that's what I'm telling myself...