When creating
streets on your layout, use
Metcalfe card tarmac sheets for the roadways
throughout. They come in packs of 5 sheets,
size A4, making them ideal for road surfaces,
car parks etc - also great for modern station
platforms. The surface is textured adding extra
realism, and they can easily be weathered.
.Self adhesive drain and manhole covers are
being added to the Signs range in September
which will add some extra detailing when you are
creating roads on your layout.
They are about £6 a pack
which is very economical if you have a lot of
roadway, and easy to cut for curved areas, so
all in all I'd recommend it.
In
some industrial areas, you can use very fine wet
and dry paper from B&Q. This is darker in
colour, but useful for areas of recently laid
tarmac and can be easily dry brushed to add some
weathering. It's so cheap I bought some spare
sheets to practise on before laying on the
layout. These can also be cut into small pieces
and then stuck onto the Metcalfe roads for
the all important road works look!
The Metcalfe road is supplied textured; it was
this that attracted it to my attention in the
first place.
For
weathering there are different approaches. Now I
haven't actually tried this on the Metcalfe
version yet, but it worked on the wet and dry. I
toned it down by spraying a very light coat of
mucky brown (one of the railway weathering
colours) from quite some distance away by
airbrush, just enough lightly 'dust' the surface
to account for general dirt and dust effect.
This only works if you're lucky enough to be
starting from scratch and there are no buildings
in the way.
The
gutters and edge of roads can be touched in by
brush painting with acrylic paints (at least you
can wipe away any successful attempts) to
represent accumulated grime.
Thanks to Martin
from signs of the
times. Visit their website
here. They stock an extensive range of model
railway detailing kits. |
