Gravel road - Good or Awful?


Jim,
I think I'm having a hard time seeing it with all the colors and the wet areas are making it hard to see the ruts in the road. I would start with 1 color and lay that down then from there add the ruts and maybe some other colors like the gravel in the road over the dirt. It looks like you still have to much colors in the road. I know here we have the red clay colors too but the roads are all red without any tan or back up north the roads are tan/brown color and no red. If you look at the other photos they don't have many color in the road and I think that is making it hard for the eye to see any road pattern like ruts.
I do have to say it's getting better and I know how hard it is to keep doing something over and over again but if you are like me and I think you are, you want it perfect. You'll get it! I know that!
Keep us posted,
Dave
 
OK, I've decided for the tan/mud look now. I put down some plaster paris and some light tan color and sprayed it down. I also dusted the bushes and such by the side of the road to show them dusty from when the road is dry. I tried to leave some mud filled ruts in the road but have an overall tan look. See what you think now. It actually looks better in person so my crappy picture taking skiles aren't helping. Concrete roads are way easier. :)

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To me, as someone who has never done anything like that before (let alone make a layout), it looks perfect for a dirt road in my area. I say keep it! :cool:

Might not help, as I have literally no experience, but looks good to me. :eek:

Cheers,
Adam
 
Adam, experience or not, I'll take that as a compliment. If it looks good to anyone, I must have done something right. :)
 
i think if ya added some weeds/grass down the center of the road and made some ruts/pot holes where the vehicle path would be that would be great.

But it all depends on how much the road is traveled also.
 
Jim, if my impressions count, I would say ya done good for one day. The dusty bushes are right on, and so's the colour for the road. If I have one remaining 'issue', it is the grittiness of the road surface. I would like to see way fewer 'pebbles'.

-Crandell
:)
 
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Thanks, Guys, it's getting there.

Crandell, LOL, I started off not wanting a gravel road that looked like ballast and now it looks like ballast even though I didn't use any. :eek: I'm going to try a little sanding and build up a few more thin layers of plaster of paris to thin it out a bit. I think I've got the muddy rut thing down so I'm also going to try Stang's suggestion of some more defined shallow ruts in the road section away from the parking area.
 
Jim, if you want fast and effective, I would wet what is there well, and then pour a soupy plaster over it, suitably tinted. Just enough to reduce about 60-70% of the graininess. It will want to do its first stiffening in a few seconds, and that would be when you run a suitable implement down it to create shallow ruts. Just a very light rolling when you do that.

-Crandell
 
Here's the Mark III version. I sanded it down some more, dusted it with plaster of paris tinted with just a little tan. That gave it an even color but I want to simulate a muddy gravel road after a rain so I added a coat in spots with a more muddy brown. I added some tire ruts and pushed some loose gravel along the edges to similated what a grader would do. I then sprayed it down and, after it dried, touched up a few spots with Floquil Mud. I decided to forego the mud puddles since they just didn't look right no matter what I did. Some of the darker areas near the church are tree shadows. The best overall view of how it looks is back in the parking area. Geez, who ever though it would take this long to do a dinky little church road. :)

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It always works out that way, the things we can do in a minute take forever and those we think we will spend a life on are done in a second.

I like what you've done and where you are with it now. I would think of adding just a little green grass or weeds in the middle of the lanes but only a little. After all weeds do grow everywhere.

Nice to see you keep with it Jim.

Dave
 
Thanks for all the help and encouragement guys. I'm now thinking, after looking at Zack's gravel road in the the WPF, that I need to sand the tire wear areas more and build up a small gravel mound in the center of the travel lane with just a few bits of turf as weeds. It will be tricky to make right because the road is so narrow. I'll have to cogitiate about this and see if there will be a Mark IV version. :)
 
UP2CSX said:
Thanks for all the help and encouragement guys. I'm now thinking, after looking at Zack's gravel road in the the WPF, that I need to sand the tire wear areas more and build up a small gravel mound in the center of the travel lane with just a few bits of turf as weeds. It will be tricky to make right because the road is so narrow. I'll have to cogitiate about this and see if there will be a Mark IV version. :)
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Youll get it im sure.

I was gonna mention building up the center area to but totally forgot to type that when i responded.
 
Have not read the whole thread but heres what I do

I mix most of the WS fine ballest with just a littler cinders some light and dark gray and some dark brown but mostly light brown and iron ore. Once I have it layed out in the glue base, I use red dirst from the baseball field ( which I sift through several size sifters) I add just a light powering of the red powder dirst with a little fine sifted riversand in case it's a little too red. Of course, like everyone else, I get it lookig just right 6 or 8 times but the section I can't get right always has pictures taken of it.......
 
Thaks for the advice. I didn't have fine enough ballast on hand and my nearest hobby shop is 80 miles away. :( I'm working on the Mark IV version now with a gravel crown in the middle of the road and more gravel on the shoulders. What I'm trying not to lose is the muddy look, since all these little church roads get muddy after a rain.,
 
UP2CSX said:
Thaks for the advice. I didn't have fine enough ballast on hand and my nearest hobby shop is 80 miles away. :( I'm working on the Mark IV version now with a gravel crown in the middle of the road and more gravel on the shoulders. What I'm trying not to lose is the muddy look, since all these little church roads get muddy after a rain.,
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When you find a few different size sifters, it's amazing just how fine you can get real dirt to become. I use riversand on the south end of the layout with mostly the red dirst from the baseball field at school for dirt and undercover for almost everything inthe Natchez area. Besides filling in around the gravel to make it look smaller, the base coat of the red dirst powder is amazing for the bottom of ruts and mud puddles.

Of course I just tore out 40' x 8 foot of mountains at the club where I had those roads but I will see if I can find some pics
 
Jim- Looking back at your first picture, you should have a darker red shade for your mud, like under the gasoline truck. Your gravel is contrasting against the other surrounding ground colors.
You have made great improvements.
Go out to the pitcher's mound in the ball park and "borrow " :D about a cup of the fine dirt there. It should work well for your muddy track mixed with gravel.
 
Mark IV Church Road

OK, I've added a gravel hump to the middle of the travel lane with a smattering of weeds. I've added some ruts to follow the gravel in the center. I also aded some gravel to the edges to simulate what's left when a grader runs through. I've still kept a muddy, drying out look since that's what most church roads look like down here. Other than starting over, I'm not sure there's much more I can do. I'll soon be up to more marks than the Spitfire. :) I also added a few pictures of the graveyard, a good place for Halloween.

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