Building Roads - A Quick Tutorial

Here's the latest addition to the scenery collection, approx 10 feet of 28mm scale country road.

Making this was really easy. Here's how. Purchase some cork tiles from your local DIY or hardware store. The tiles in the pack I bought were 30cm x 30xm and around 3mm thick.

Next, decide on how wide you want your road to be (mine is 9cm) and what shapes, i.e. bends, T-junctions, etc, you want. This is best done by sketching some diagrams or even cutting out some shapes and seeing how they fit together. Bear in mind your existing scenery collection too. Most of the road sections are 12 inches long, so my hedge/walls (at approx 6 inches) align nicely.

Then draw out the shapes you need on the tiles and cut with a very sharp modelling knife - cork tile can be quite resistant to cutting so take care. Try to avoid any shapes that are too 'geometric' or 'angular' - real roads (especially older country roads) tend to have more natural curves.

Trim the road-side edges of the road sections to help them blend in to the terrain. Mine were chamfered at about 45 degrees.

Give the sections a generous coat of rough masonry paint - this gives them a good texture for little effort. Then apply some glue and sprinkle on a little sand here and there along the edges and / or in the middle of the road.

Now they're ready for painting... I sprayed mine with AP Leather Brown, but any earthy brown colour will do. After that they were highlighted (basically dry-brushed) with three Vallejo colours Goldbrown, Tan Yellow and Dark Sand. Then garnish with various shades of flock.

Here are some smaller pieces for tighter curves or to help join up longer sections.

I've made a sort of farmyard 'square' plus a couple of longer 45 degree curves.

The really good thing about using cork tile is that it's flexible and any 'curling' due to paint, glue etc is offset by them laying flat under their own weight. Five tiles gave me 10 feet of road plus the farmyard.

Hope you found that useful.


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