Scratchbuilt asphalt roads

[hands made for wood]

So the other day I was shingling the roof with my Dad and after my Dad had cut a strip off the shingle I thought that it would almost work for roadbed underneath the track. After thinking about it some more I thought it would work great for a highway! and so I made a tutorial on how to make it hope you like it and any advice is greatly appreciated!

1. First you take an asphalt shingle and cut a strip off the one side as pictured.

2. After cutting a strip, if wanting an older and more weathered look paint it grey. Afterwards take white-out tape and run it along a ruler while pushing on the tip of the white-out tape to keep it from peeling this will give it a weatherd affect.

3. As for the center lines, take masking tape and as pictured stick it on the strip to make desired size of each line and paint over it.

4. If you are wanting more of a weathered look dry brush with the same grey over the lines to fade it. And last but not least you can also rip the shingle in places for cracks.

And here's a picture of what it looks like in the end. (with better lighting)

Hope you like it! and again if you have any advice I would like to hear what you have to say!

 

[Jess Red Horse]

Wow that is cool , great idea!
The last pic looks great!

 

[kenw]

very good work!

 

[OldGettysk]

Good Idea and a way to get rid of those extra shingles!!!

 

[hands made for wood]

Thanks for the comments guys I'm glad you liked it!

 

[UP2CSX]

Levi, I posted some comments in your other rodway thread. Shingles have been used a lot for doing asphalt roadways. One of the things to do is sand most of the fine granules off the shingle before using it since the normal asphalt shingle has a surface that's way too rough for an HO roadway. The other issue is the size of the cracks, which I already discussed. You don't want the cracks to look so big that a car is going to lose a wheel in one. Very nice over all for your first effort.

 

[hands made for wood]

well I'm actually in o scale and am using the back of teh shingle where it really isn't that rough.

 

[UP2CSX]

Even in O scale, the back side of the shingle is still too rough for an asphalt roadway. Look at your one closeup shot in the other thread and then go out and look at an asphalt road. Unless the road is really in bad shape, you wouldn't see that much of the stone aggregate surface showing through.

 

[jbaakko]

Looks good, but how well does it bend to the scenery?