New Road Techniques

​For a while I’d been trying to get a good textured effect for modelling paved roads. I’d tried and failed many times until eventually I found a simple and effective method that was easy to do albeit time consuming.

The technique I used can be seen in one of my videos, ‘Realistic Scenery Vol 5’. But somehow since then I’ve never really been 100% satisfied. It’s very easy to achieve good results using the sponge method but it’s equally as easy to completely stuff it up and then you’ll need to start over and repaint everything.
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It was just recently I stumbled upon a new faster and more consistent technique… Rustoleum Spray Paint!

​Originally this technique came to me when using an acrylic spray paint but I’ve also discovered it works just as well with Rustoleum although the rustoleum cans spray at a much higher pressure compared to the acrylic spray cans which means you’ll need to hold the can a little further back to avoid obliterating the area with a thick coat of paint.

Basically it’s a two step process

1. After preparing the road surface spray the base coat – Rustoleum Flat Grey then leave to dry, covering the entire road surface.
2. Next lightly spray from a distance the texture coat – Rustloeum Ivory Satin, all that’s needed is a very light misting so that about 75% of the original base coat still shows through.

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Just be sure to mask any areas where you don’t want paint to go as the spray is quite intense and it can float a long way from the intended area of application. 
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Also due to the can being held about 50cm away from the surface while misting the paint, some paint will have dried prior to landing on the intended surface, once I've left everything to dry for a while I'll lightly brush a dry cloth across the surface to dust away any dried paint that did not stick.

To add detail I simply cut a square out of some paper and sprayed the flat grey through the template to show road repairs, the cracks are made using a .5mm permanent marker and the lines were applied by using masking tape to mask out the road lines then sprayed with the Ivory Satin (I would have used white but I had run out).
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It’s that easy, this little test piece too all of about 1 minute to go from white plaster road to a nice textured road with even coverage (Drying time included), the rest of the details took another few minutes and I was left with a great, easy fast to make road.

As can be seen in the above photo, this is where I used the sponge technique in Realistic Scenery Vol 5, the overall coverage is much less uniform and the texture is also more course when compared to the new technique using spray cans. In some cases this may be the desired outcome but for most roads you'll most likely want a finer more uniform appearance. 

The reason for doing the new road was part of the experimenting that I’m doing for my next video which will be on making a road crossing train track. I’m pretty excited to show this technique to you on YouTube.
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Stay tuned for more updates
Cheers
Luke