Exactly! Im pretty much with the other guys except I use posterboard cut to a rough fit for the base of a town that has the trolley running through it. Then I use spackle from the posterboard up to the tracks. I believe I used a set of freight car trucks to cut out the grooves so the trolley could get around. I think I used a tip of a screwdriver to widen the grooves just a bit more. And finally I used a wash thinned with water black acrylic paint to get the color of faded asphalt.
The color is actually just the raw spackle. I mixed up one of the quart tubs with a little black, a little brown, a little green until I got the color where I wanted it. Now I have a batch ready whenever I need to pave some roads. It dries just a bit different each time, I guess humidity and temperature affect it, so I don't have to worry about mixing different colors to get variations over the layout. PS. The road way is on an HO layout that I am helping a gentleman with.
I'll just chime in about the wonders of spackle too. I tinted mine with india ink, until it was almost black. it dries a bit lighter.. In this pic both surfaces are spackle, cement and asphalt. They're just tinted differently.
Amazing how when wet the spackle looks like fresh asphalt and when dry it looks like aged asphalt. Very nice looking; I will have to try the india ink dyed spackle technique when it's time for my roads. Jamie
I have about four feet of track running down my waterfront street including a switch. I built cofferdams using strip styrene and then filled it all in with wallboard mud. When the mud was dry enough to be just past the sticky phase I ran a truck equipped with the fattest, deepest flanges I could find down the track. This gave me a starting point for the flange clearances. Here is an aerial view of this region.
I just want to be sure that I understand all this correctly. First you completely cover the tracks with dyed vinyl spackle then you carve out a groove inside the rails. Is this correct?
yep. spackle is actually soft enough when dry to easily carve it. it doesn't dry hard as a rock like plaster does.
Yes, that's how I did it. When you say 'cover' the tracks, actually what you want to do is level the vinyl spackle down to the same height as the rail tops - you should be able to see the tops of the rails showing through.
