Good evening. 73*F and calm here in central MD, with clouds rolling in slowly from the west. Last time I checked, TWC had downgraded the predicted severity of the T-storms that we'll be getting tomorrow.
TrussDavid - In your state, I'd be more concerned about the Water Police citing you for wasting water...
Ken: That might be true if I lived in city area but I live in the country on acreage like most every one else in the area as I think 2.5 acres is the smallest size parcel of property you can have as most everyone has to have their own water well as I do and we paid to have it drilled into the hard granite rock below. A Whicher found a location where three strata crossed and drilled straight down from above so I have three sources of water dumping into the 8" diameter 160' deep well hard rock well. I only pump what I need to use at any given time and there is no excess runoff. What most folks don't seem to realize is that the water flows through the fischers in the granite rock and as it gets to a well hole that been drilled it fills up the 8" diameter hole and once filled it continues to run on down hil toward the valley below. The little amount of water I use, as I hand water the front lawn which is only sparce patches of grass and I water by hand so I only use enough water to wet the grass and surrounding areas fairly good and quit. Also most of the time I'll water in the evening so there isn't too much evaporation.
PK - Regarding the size, I make my pavement surfaces 3.25" wide. That way all of my scale vehicles, including heavy mack trucks, will fit between the double yellow lines and the white shoulder stripe. I snapped a few pix using my cellphone, so the quality isn't the greatest...
Here are the raw materials I used for the asphalt roads: Evergreen black sheet styrene .040"; Krylon Dark Gray Primer for the base coat; Krylon Ultra-Flat Khaki to make it look "dirty"; and Wal-Mart brand light gray primer to create a faded appearance. I wanted a mix of colors since a single color would look too toylike [IMHO]:
A section of asphalt road painted in the three colors shown in the previous photo, before adding lines:
Some Walthers "Street System" Concrete street sections painted in Krylon Ultra-Flat Khaki, I'm using these in my "downtown" scene:
Here is a road section I did ~3 weeks ago. The photo makes the surface look darker than it actually is...
Tomorrow I plan to work on the stripes. I'll try to include a few step-by-step photos.
It's getting late and 5:00am comes up awfully fast. G'night, see you all tomorrow.