DS: City block WIP

12 posts ยท Jun 12 2003 to Jun 12 2003

From: Robin Fitton <contactrobin@h...>

Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2003 13:35:30 +0100

Subject: DS: City block WIP

Dear All,

I have almost finished work on a set of city roads for a basic block system
I am putting together that will sit on my GEO-Hex terrain boards.  I
used
plasticard from slaters uk and layered it to create the sidewalk/curbs.
In the pictures below you can see the unpainted layout which can be moved
around because all of the pieces are separate sections.

http://www.rottenlead.com/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?s=f78a2e7f5097eba62aec98
ebaf a3c49e;act=ST;f=17;t=6;r=1;&#top

The buildings in the photo are from timecast and were supplied
pre-painted,
they did an excellent job!

The little brass stuck on bits are etched storm drains and service covers from
langley models UK. I also picked up some trash cans and other road side
items inlcuding traffic lights from them.  They are 1/485th N gauge
train scale which makes them larger than DS scale, but they look perfect when
placed on the board, if they were any smaller and they would not be worth
placing on the board.

From: Doug Evans <devans@n...>

Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2003 08:19:01 -0500

Subject: Re: DS: City block WIP

***
Here is some Work in progress. I have actually half finished painting the
plasticard and roads and need to get some new photos taken...
***

What you said... ;->=

Definitely interesting. I'm curious about the square in the lower half of the
first pic. Is that representing water, or just unbuilt and I'm jumping
to tasty conclusions? If water, what is it/how was it done?

Most sidewalks I'm familiar with don't have that kind of gridding, but the
texture definitely improves visual interest. Even this vacc-head is
waiting to see more!

The_Beast

From: Robin Fitton <contactrobin@h...>

Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2003 14:52:10 +0100

Subject: Re: DS: City block WIP

> Is that representing water, or

> kind of gridding
 It
adds detail but does not look very real. Has anyone got a suggestion for
realistic sidewalks in 1:300th?

I will post the more complete layout after the weekend - I hope to get a
game completed on it this Saturday.

Cheers Robin

[quoted original message omitted]

From: Tony Francis <tony.francis@k...>

Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2003 15:06:34 +0100

Subject: Re: DS: City block WIP

> Robin Fitton wrote:

> kind of gridding
Try Plastruct; the US website is at http://www.plastruct.com. I get mine

from EMA supplies - no website, but write to

From: Robin Fitton <contactrobin@h...>

Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2003 15:20:46 +0100

Subject: Re: DS: City block WIP

Great!

Tks
[quoted original message omitted]

From: Michael Brown <mwbrown@s...>

Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2003 07:22:52 -0700

Subject: RE: DS: City block WIP

Plastruct has several textured sheets, maybe one of the finer grid or
cobblestone sheets.  The squares for the sidewalk would be @ 3-4mm on a
side.

Michael Brown

[quoted original message omitted]

From: Doug Evans <devans@n...>

Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2003 09:32:21 -0500

Subject: Re: DS: City block WIP

I think most of the Plastruct's variety of patterns look similar to what
Robin's already using. I've seen some texture paint/artist mediums that
would give a nice concrete texture, but a) might be expensive, and b) requires
a fair amount of work to spread out over large areas and get smooth.

Would dark lines for the space between sidewalk squares, and also the curb,
work? How about painting gray with daubing with black and white paint to get
the speckled texture? I know there's some craft paints that model stone that
might work similarly.

Grasping for straws,

The_Beast

From: Robin Fitton <contactrobin@h...>

Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2003 15:51:05 +0100

Subject: Re: DS: City block WIP

Doug,

I used exterior wall paint sandtex (fine mix) on the roads. It has two
purposes, firstly it gives you a very fine texture and secondly plasticard is
inert and difficult to glue together, the layer of sandtex helps bond the
plasticard together when glued.

At the moment I am simply dry-brushing up with a lighter grey on the
sidewalk. I am also painting darker grey areas onto the larger 18x18cm squares
to give the impression of smaller access roads.

Should have some pictures of the results next week.

Robin

[quoted original message omitted]

From: Tony Francis <tony.francis@k...>

Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2003 16:45:51 +0100

Subject: Re: DS: City block WIP

> Robin Fitton wrote:

> Doug,
This stuff makes fantastic roads:

http://www.mgsharp.com/R_Scenes_HO.htm

It would be a little wide for 1/300th / 6mm, but you could buy the
standard width stuff and trim half-an-inch off each edge. I'm in the
process of putting together some 15mm scenery for a demo' game at
Bifrost next month and I'm using it for all of the roads - stuck to 2mm
MDF it looks really good. You can also buy unmarked lengths and larger areas
for squares, open areas etc.

From: Doug Evans <devans@n...>

Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2003 11:04:31 -0500

Subject: Re: DS: City block WIP

A little internet diggin' shows that Busch, though not at the site described
previously, does an 'asphalt tape double sided' for N scale, which is closer
to micro armor, right?

Just a thought...

The_Beast

From: Robin Fitton <contactrobin@h...>

Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2003 17:04:34 +0100

Subject: Re: DS: City block WIP

Those stick on roads look interesting. Do you know if they have a rough
texture or are they just printed plastic?

The town street section actually looks close to my homemade creation.

R
[quoted original message omitted]

From: Tony Francis <tony.francis@k...>

Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2003 17:32:10 +0100

Subject: Re: DS: City block WIP

> Robin Fitton wrote:

> Those stick on roads look interesting. Do you know if they have a rough
They're a very thin foam-like material (0.6mm they claim).
Straightforward to cut when on the backing material, but very sticky and

you have to place them right first time - if you try to peel it off then

it stretches / distorts and you've had it. However, I've been able to
lay straight sections pretty easily. It's supposed to be flexible enough

to allow it to follow gentle curves, which I haven't tried yet but am prepared
to believe.

Just thinking about it, I have a single pack of a narrower road which must be,
as The Beast pointed out, the N gauge stuff

http://www.mgsharp.com/N_Scenes.htm

and there's also Z gauge which is only 32mm wide.

http://www.mgsharp.com/Z_Scenics.htm