Model Roads and Road Markings

A curious video in which I experiment with different baseboard colours in an attempt to alter the tonal appearance of sand being used as a road surface, and to no great success.
I also look at a method for creating road markings on a sand applied road surface with much greater success.

[@schadowolf]

Great technique and experimentation for roads and markings! Thanks for sharing!

[@barryturner2916]

That's life Julian we don't succeed without trial and error, many thanks for sharing. I have used talc powder mixed in paint to give a textured finish. Take care regards Barry..

[@grahamparry7200]

I have used fine 180 grit sandpaper on my N scale layout. It gives a good representation of our New Zealand roads. Obviously it has to be painted and weathered on top rather than painting underneath as you have done. It does take some care to hide the join between strips of paper.

[@genejordan9983]

New to your site. I’m impressed and I love the worn look to your lines. Great idea and a big help

[@StationRoadModelRailway]

Welcome to Station Road and many thanks for your feedback. cheers, Julian.

[@Schottlandrockt]

Hello Julian, I think that if you don't press the sand into the glue, you could achiev the result with the painted surface shining through. Regarding using selfstickig labels for the template. I would recomend to try it on one of your testpieces. I'm using these selfadhesive labels for my buildings, and when I misaligned them on a card surface, I end up with a card that had remains of the selfadhesive labels on it or with a card surface, with pieces of the card torn out by the labelpaper.

[@StationRoadModelRailway]

I think you could be right about pressing the sand down. That and too much glue/sand resulted in a non-result. I will have another go I think. It is one of my concerns about the self-adhesive labels that it might leave adhesive residue or torn paper stuck in the sand, no the less, I'll give it a go and see what happens.

[@exehavenharbour]

Really enjoyed the video as usual Julian. The experiment is like something I’d do and made me laugh because of that. But I must say your road building system with the sand is one of the best I’ve seen. The road markings look great and is probably the system I will use. I have one more baseboard section to build on my layout then the planning can begin properly. Hope all is well down your end of the world, Kind Regards John

[@StationRoadModelRailway]

I was tossing up whether to include my failed experiment or edit it out, but decided to keep it in. As much a railway modeling has it's rewards, things still don't always go to plan, so thought I'd keep it in for a giggle. All is well down here. Tomorrow we find out if NZ is going down to Alert Level 2 (another step closer to normality).

[@Rheilffordd]

G'day Station Road! Great tutorial and because of this, I have stumbled on the rest of your videos and your wonderful layout! I have now Liked and Subscribed and look forward to seeing how Station Road progresses.

[@kenrobertson9048]

Looks great. But as you know the Tamiya tape and the low stick masking tape is not cheap so thinking about the amount you need to do most of the roads the price will be huge.

[@onnomulder9775]

Very interesting video Julian!! Thanks for sharing. Stay safe!! Cheers Onno.

[@ewoodrailway]

Very good video with some interesting tips. Thanks for sharing it, I've subbed

[@clivecobbold6815]

Hi julian great video mate a evey interesting article best lay plans don't always go well but interesting anyway keep up the good work mate clive

[@steveharper5536]

Morning Julian great informative video as usual from Station Road, you will be getting requests to ship sand from NZ to the world mate. Love the giant sanding deck. Stay safe to you and yours. Cheers Steve

[@StationRoadModelRailway]

Yes, I think sand and also the ground pumice I use for ballast... apparently this is hard to come by in the UK.

[@jonathanscott01]

I was also going to suggest using actual sandpaper with a layer of paint on top plus weathering.

[@jt5081]

Great tips and ideas. I will experiment myself. we are all prone to err.

[@FarlandHowe]

It is not a failure at all. Now we all know what happens when one glues sand to plywood painted or not. ;-)

[@ralphviola6594]

I suggest it was due to a combinational of too much glue and too much sand. Good idea for the road markings. Thanks

[@jeffgoldenberg9579]

Greetings from NYC. I think you may have put down too much glue, or had it on too thick. Instead of spreading with a brush, try using an old credit card or a putty knife to get a really thin layer. Might even try a thin layer of straight acrylic paint and applying the sand while it's wet. Just my two cents. It is a great technique judging from the road in front of the station.

[@brianstewart3594]

looking i might try the on my model bridge layout

[@rob7371]

How do you do curved lines for curved roads with the tape.

[@pierre-de-standing]

Julian - just to be annoying, don't forget roads are not flat, they have a camber so that water drains to the kerbs. Also large flat areas, eg where you plan the car park, are never completely flat either, notice the puddles that always appear in the same places when it rains and others where it always dries quickest. Thanks for being humble enough to share your failings, they will be trivial compared to the ones I make when I finally get going!

[@StationRoadModelRailway]

I did ponder about whether to go to the extent of creating road/street cambers and decided to save this level of detail for a future layout. However, I have decided to include some patch up detailing and pot holes as it would seem UK roads are as bad as NZ roads for various states of disrepair.

[@tonywincott8448]

Great Video, For the templates you could use a scan-n-cut machine, It's great for template making. I have used mine for making Basic paper houses.Still experimenting.

[@StationRoadModelRailway]

I have to say I've never heard of a scan-n-cut machine. I used to work in the sign industry many years ago and we used a vinyl cutter to generate stick-on vinyl graphics and lettering, is this something similar?

[@tonywincott8448]

@@StationRoadModelRailway You can scan in or design on computer your template, then when you print it out it will cut out the pattern, it can cut paper, card stock, vinyl, sticker sheet or material. The Scan-n-cut is made by Brother there is another brand one called Cricut. Hello from Australia. Take care.

[@StationRoadModelRailway]

Sounds interesting, I'll have to investigate. Thanks for the tip.

[@doggerproductions]

Don't forget all the pot holes....our uk roads are full of them😄

[@gbjanuary]

😂😂👩‍🚒

[@mikerees6871]

Hi julian -i would'nt say its a failior what you have shown is that if you put enough sand on it does'nt matter what base colour you use -thats my take on it -stay safe mate -regards mike rees

[@StationRoadModelRailway]

You make a good point, thanks Mike.

[@sardine158]

Great experiment Julian. It worked well. I wonder what it would look like if you used west coast sand?

[@sardine158]

The road markings are great.

[@StationRoadModelRailway]

Are we talking UK west coast sand? Here in NZ areas of our west coast sand is quite dark, almost black in places.

[@sardine158]

@@StationRoadModelRailway hi Julian, I was thinking west coast South island - there aren't too many dark sands in the UK from memory. We would love to take a trip over to the west coast when this lunacy is over.

[@StationRoadModelRailway]

Ah, I thought you were UK based but guessing you're in the South Island NZ?

[@sardine158]

@@StationRoadModelRailway just north of dunedin

[@mickbuckley8452]

Hi. Fantastic video, I’ve been scratching my head thinking about the best road surface and now I have it, thanks One question Julian. Do you seal the sand once dry?

[@StationRoadModelRailway]

Thanks for your feedback. I haven't sealed it yet as there's still a bit of weathering and litter that I want to add. Once I've done that, I'll spray over with Dullcoat.

[@mickbuckley8452]

Thanks

[@davidgregory1668]

Hi Julian, Good try with the experiment,I just paint my roads with a mid grey then the sand.I do use a wallpaper roller,they are about 38 mm wide.Makes sure the sand is glued down before I Vacuum the loose stuff up.I don’t worry about road markings,they do look good but how would you do bends ? Cheers David

[@StationRoadModelRailway]

The beauty of the orange modellers masking tape is its ability to flex a bit, so I should be able to work it around the corners with a bit of coaxing.

[@hirsutusi5536]

@@StationRoadModelRailway Could you demonstrate how you do the curved road markings?

[@Steamjammer]

Well, at least those road markings looked pretty good! Maybe applying the glue to the plywood with something like these foam rollers www.diy.com/departments/4-mini-roller-set/1694091_BQ.prd might give you a thinner layer that sticks less sand. A thinner layer might dry quicker, too. I've only tried it once, for a small backscene, but it seemed to work well. Regards, Steve.

[@StationRoadModelRailway]

A small roller would certainly do the trick for applying a thinner layer of glue. If you check out my [Take 2] video, I apply the glue more sparingly with the brush, thus achieving a more successful result.

[@gustavofernandez484]

Thank youu for sharing..very helpful. Just one comment (please no offense)....you can shorten your videos significantly if you go right to the point and don't comment so much....again, my intention is not to offend, just an opinion.....thanks again...

[@StationRoadModelRailway]

No offence taken but I don’t want to shorten my videos. KZbin has now introduced chapters which I’ll be using on all future videos, so for those with little patience and a compulsion to let everyone on KZbin know they have no patience, you’ll now be able to skip straight to the segment, thus saving yourself the time it took to express your opinion, no offence intended.

[@CharlesDiAntonio]

Building diorama buildings

[@sardine158]

Doesn't look like the UK Julian. Not enough pot holes....😁

[@StationRoadModelRailway]

Ah, so the UK suffers the same issues as here in NZ... although here they sometimes put cones around the pot holes.

[@sardine158]

@@StationRoadModelRailway ah, the pot holes in the UK have birthdays too....