Gravel road - Good or Awful?


U

UP2CSX

Fleeing from Al
Hey guys,

I've been putting in my country church, which fits in one odd shaped corner of the layout. Most of our country churchs are on gravel or just graded dirt roads. I've tried to duplicate the look of a gravel road and parking area adter a shower, with some puddles and a fair bit of mud, which always shows through the gravel here. Ignore, the unfinished side of the layout and the church itself, which still needs work. It's the gravel road I'm trying to get right. This is about my fourth attempt. I've found that gravel roads where you can see the individdual grains of gravel at three feet, like ballast, just don't look like a gravel road, they look more like an abandoned roadbed. :) Let me know what you think. My own opinion is that it's OK but I'm still not totally happy with it.

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Okay, honestly, it doesn't look ready yet. What I would do is make more defined greenery, maybe blended turf or something heavier, and make clearer bounds right up to the sides of your laneway. As it is, it is too undefined and I can't really tell what it is supposed to be as a result. I need more greenery shaping the actual mean/average tire paths that a car/truck would cover if it actually used that land or road several times a week....if you follow.

To point out a particular problem area for me, at the right edge of your diorama, where blue extruded foam is showing? I would really desire more green showing for maybe 1/2-1 full inch along that top edge, and the foam itself distracts me...neither here nor there I suppose, but that side of the lane way needs to be scenicked for my tastes.

Maybe some tufted grass would help. Also, not so high an angle if you please... can you get your camera lower?

-Crandell
 
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Crandell, I think you've picked out one thing that was bothering me but I couldn't place my finger on it. I did a little of the outside greenery you can see in the lower photo but should have contiued around the road too. I also need to small bushes and grass to define the ends of the parking area. There are some there but the fact it's dark under the trees means I need more so the viewer sees it.

I'll make come changes and photgraph from a lower angle too. I need to make it look good from eye level and from above, since from above is how most viewers will see it. The edge is where the fasia is going but there's no reason I cant add more bushes there now.
 
Hi Jim

my honest opinion I think it has to many colors in it. I like what your trying to do with the sceen but something just does not look right to me.. it almost looks like a driveway with melting snow to me.. could just be the lighting in the pic? Over where I park my semi trucks. the ground is made of grindings,stone etc... but the clay and concrete dust are tracked in by trucks going in and out. when its dry the ground is all diffrent colors tan,brown, white etc.. when it rains its all brown as the dirt fills in the gravel when the water carries it.. just thinking here... a club member did a rain storm scean on the club layout. I think he used gloss clear to represent a rain on the ground. looked real good on the ashphalt and gravel roads... might work for you if you try another attempt?.. have fun!!!
 
Hi Jim: It would seem gravel/dirt roads should be easy to model, but they're not. This is the gravel road in my yard. Is this anything like what you want to model? DJ.

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I like the way it is coming together. Maybe a little less on the tonal quality of all the green around the road and a little more "gravelly"---that look that you got there is what I've seen on some somewhat overgrown--out of the way roads up here. The church looks suitably old, what with the huge tree practically right into the building---now that I think of it--that road looks to have become more relegated to a farm lane than a road!!

One thing that I noticed on some of our "Find A Backroad" tours we took recently was the width of some are a little --shall we say, skimpy. One road, for example, not too far away from Goderich ON, amounts to no more than a 11' width. Our car plus about 1' on either side then a 5' drainage ditch on either side. Freshly laid gravel and all but :eek:
 
Jim,
I did this with gray paint, N scale ballast at the edges, and gray tile grout for the driving surface. After it dried I rubbed the center with my finger to smooth it out a bit. I have done some other gravel roads and parking lot like this and I like the results. The grout is available in many different colors. Maybe something is a match for what your looking for.

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Jim,
seems like you have a lot of good ideas here and I can't think of much to add. I do agree there seems to be to much color and one thing I was thinking about was the corner would not be as defined as the straight part of the road. seems people will drive the same in a line but when it comes to turning we all have different ways to turn, some wider then others. Because of this the grass would be less defined on the turn but more defined along the straight areas. I was working on the dirt driveway on my diorama and found that I needed to mix dirt into the gravel so it wasn't just gravel but more dirt on the ruts then the center.
Keep us posted.
Dave
 
Jim,.
Have you thought about texture paint for the road, then stain/wash/color it to taste. I found the small grit in the paint works pretty well for several applications.
 
Well, shoot, I should have posted a question here before I started. You guys have some nice looking roads.

Mark, kind of like your service road but with just a little grass in the middle since the church road gets more traffic.

Dave, I've already removed most of the grass from the turn area based on just what you wrote.

Joe and DJ, both your roads look good...too good for a country church down here. The average road gets graded and a load of gravel dumped once a year so they can be in pretty bad shape before the next time the road comes due for some fixin'.

Trent, I actually had too much lighting to offset the tree shadows so it looks whiter than it really is.

Crandell, I've taken your advice and outlined the road and parking area with more vegetation. I also removed some more road surface while taking out a lot of the grass in the middle of the road so I created a few more holes for mud puddles that I Mod-Podged and are drying now. I've also added a but more mud to tone down the white gravel a bit. I'll try some lower shots tomorrow and see what y'all think.
 
This is why I love these forums. All the help you get for each other and it really make your work look better. I know my work would never be as well as it is now without the feedback for other. So, is the road looking better? Can't wait to see new photos.
Dave
 
MGSWY The width of that road is just right to illustrate my point from:)---imagine driving along a country road with just enough on either side---and with 5-7' ditches on either side yet!!:eek:
 
Jim,

I haven't yet seen any photos of your revised driveway so I'm basing this on your originals. The first thing that jumps out at me is the foliage between the ruts: It seems way too lush and dark green for an area that is regularly trod over by vehicles. I would expect the weeds/grass to be much shorter and more lightly colored, almost brownish where it borders the ruts - especially if that road is in a region that gets rain very infrequently ;)

As for the colors of the ruts themselves, there seems to be too much contrast between them. One of the other posters (Trent?) mentioned how the gravel on the roads he drives over, tends to get covered with the dust of the underlying dirt. This would make your white gravel a dirtier brown color, similar to the raw earth it is trying to cover. Q: Do you have [or can you shoot] any 'prototype' photos of a similar road? If so, then perhaps if you post them here, we'd all have a better idea of the similarities and differences between that and your model.
 
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OK, guys, I've taken all your suggestions. I've ripped out most of the grass in the middle of the road and toned down the rest of it. I've added a lot more red mud, which what we have down here rather than just than the tan mud I had before. I've tried to make the overall scene more muddy with some puddles and less white. Let's see if y'all think it's less awful. :) I've used Lester's beater Chevy pickup for scale.

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It is a great view, Jim. Good modelling! If it were my layout, I would try mixing plaster of paris with tempera powder or masonary dye and liberally brushing the mix over your gravel road. Then I would spritz it gently, or mist it, with an alcohol mixture. When dried, and if necessary repeated to get more depth, it should look smoother, less colour variation, and more dusty...I hope.

-Crandell
 
Ok, Crandell, you've convinced me. Alabama gravel roads just don't look right in pictures. I'm going to use some plaster of paris and some light yelowish gray color to simlulate a gravel road that's usually dry but is now a little muddy. I'm going to dust up some of the bushes around the church as well so they will look dusty from the road dust. It should look like fine gravel with some mud holes when I'm done. I'm leaving the red out all together and will try to only have two or three colors on the road. Jeez, you wouldn't think it would be so hard to make a muddy Alabama gravel road. :)
 
Hi Jim: FWIW, here's another suggestion. I would take a small surform tool with an old blade, and "grade" the road. Just take off the high spots, which would leave shallow "ruts" and puddles. Crandell's suggestion of using tempera paint is a good one. I also used that technique, only with black color. They also have brown. Then when you have the texture and color you like, maybe apply a very thin line of white glue in the center and apply some fine green foam and after it dries, vacuum up the excess. Just my 2 cents. DJ.
 
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