Ideas for lines on Roads

[jdetray]

Thanks, Tom. I know it will eventually work out.

I'm a big believer in the right tool for the job. I never regret buying a good tool. What I hate is wasting time and money on dead ends.

As my wife will confirm, I have become totally obsessed with this small stretch of curvy road, to the point that I have stopped all other work on the layout. I have sanded down and repainted the road twice, and even discarded one road and constructed a new one because I wasn't satisfied with the contours.

I have constructed two different jigs to hold paint pens and guide the roadway while I move it over the pens, trying to create even, parallel lines. That was a miserable failure.

My wife is already urging me to get the "Master Paint Striper" in order to get this monkey off my back!

- Jeff

 

[Rico]

Unless I missed it, has anyone tried the Kadee street decals?
http://www.kadee.com/htmbord/decals.htm
I have a set of the double solid yellow, but they are older and tend to break apart when laying them down. Overall tho they don't look so very bad.

 

[jdetray]

Unless I missed it, has anyone tried the Kadee street decals?

Does anyone make something like those for N-scale? That's what I need.

- Jeff

 

[furyus]

Hey Jeff,
I just had a thought. ( it made my head hurt) Check out bugler pinstripe machine. If I remember right it had a dual line wheel. Don't know if it is small enough but it might work. It was originally used to pinstripe wheels. Check online for info.

John

 

[jdetray]

Thanks John.

I went to the Beugler web site, and that is one slick looking device! That may be the pinstriping gadget I recall from my younger days when I sometimes read hot rod magazines.

Even for an obsessive guy like me, the Beugler is a bit pricey at $100 plus plus the cost of a double-line head.

Decisions, decisions.

- Jeff

 

[jdetray]

I received my supplies for making lines on a curvy road for my layout. I ordered some Decocolor paint pens, a 40-inch flexible ruler, and several widths of matte-finish chart tape.

I tried the chart tape first. Since my layout is N-scale, I used 1/32-inch tape, which is a scale width of 5 inches, just about right for highway lines. I first lightly marked the centerline of the road with a pencil, then used the pencil marks as a guide for applying the two yellow stripes. I applied one stripe, then simply eyeballed the spacing for the second yellow stripe. Then I applied white tape to represent fog lines on the edges of the roadway.

I'm pretty pleased with the results, enough so that I am declaring this to be good enough. The tape is fairly easy to apply and will follow a relatively sharp radius without wrinkling. The tape is thin enough that you must look very closely indeed to see that it is raised slightly above the road surface. My plan is to add some weathering then spray on a Matte finish.

I will try the paint pens on another section of road to see how they work. The pens should be easy to use for straight roads, but I think the tape will prove easier for curves.

- Jeff

 

[tomstockton]

Jeff,

That looks really good! Now all you need is scenery and some 10 MPH signs for that curve!

Thanks for posting the pics -- and looking forward to seeing more!

Regards,
Tom

 

[jdetray]

Scenery!? I'd be happy with a coat of earth-colored paint so I don't have to look at blue and pink foam!

Seriously, thanks for the encouragement, Tom.

Getting decent lines on this stretch of road was a real stopper for me. All other work on my layout ground to a halt while I worked on it. It is not perfect, but I'm ready to move on.

- Jeff

 

[julienjj]

I would add some water drains too ! you could then weather some dryed dirt around them

 

[jdetray]

This roadway is not even affixed to the layout yet. I will be adding details and scenery along the road as the layout progresses. I want to look at some real roads to check for roadside details.

- Jeff