Planes, Trains and Automobiles? Nah Roads, Rivers and Paths

 To build or not to build, along with painting toy soldiers, I’ve been building more buildings and terrain recently. Probably inspired by Joe B and like certain painters sonicsledgehammer to name one, I’ve realised I need to speed up my process if I want to get a game in, so gone are the five tier highlights and individual brick painting, from 3ft no one can tell. Not that corners are cut and the quality isn’t there, Joe and sonic know there crafts, on to emulation and/or blatant plagiarism.

Roads it is then, I could have bought some, beautiful latex pieces but when I think about blowing £200 plus quid on them, my skint brain says no! (Then I realise my modelling brain is a crafty bugger and justifies some expenditure via “the hobby”). There’s an equation in there where time + art + effort + money = Happy Si. :) 

So yeh I robbed these from a you tuber Black magic crafts, his vids are great, so I thought I’d give them a go.

Roads take one

So here’s the tools and materials, from left to right, a 4” roller (very important this is for seating your aggregates, some acrylic builders caulk I got the wickes imaginatively titled “brown”, make sure whatever you use is flexible and paintable. To the left of that is silicone sealant (not for today’s lesson). Blocking rod, also not for todays lesson. A couple of metal rulers and a personal favourite of mine, the Stanley knife (with a decent amount of fresh blades) aka the box cutter. And last but not least, the dinner table’s saviour an off cut of OSB.

Next up the peas de resistance, the mighty sheet of black rubber, she maybe stinky and 3mm thick (I now think 2mm would have done it, but hey hindsight and all that). A piece 120cm wide by 200cm long for £25, should cover me. Exciting pic huh.

So cutting began, I soon realised that as the rubber came in a roll, curling does happen, however there is hope I’m told that if you store your flexible road curled in the opposite direction to said curl it should even out. But I decided to make sure all my cuts, were taken from the same side, as frugal/time saving genius that I am not, thought that as each cut is made at about a 45* angle I could flip the mat and save myself… nah curling ensued, instead I just trim back and go again.

Eventually it became about 20ft of lengths, curves, crossroads and t - junctions,  these lengths were then coated in a layer of the brown caulking, and different aggregates were added, then roller time, the fluffy roller is wetted, squeezed out to being damp, then rolled on the aggregate, applying about the same amount of pressure as the weight of said roller, dampening the roller helps it not to take up everything you’ve just laid down. 

There’s a combination of sharp sand, railway ballast (that has a £2.50 sticker on the bag, purchased thirty years ago, shows how much terrain building I do), and kids fine sand, saved back from their sand pit, that’s a while back to. 

Ballasted, can you see the curling.

And finally painted, mainly dry brushed using cheap artist acrylics, there’s part of me that thinks I should have started from a lighter base coat, but hey, so all in all 20ish ft of track for about £15, sweet. 

Blogging again?

 Where to start, well I’ve got a lot under my belt, although not as much as I used to. Went to “the other partizan” last week. Was helping Joe Bilton run his What a Tanker game based on the battle of Moncornet (this years table) along with another member of the ROS, I came this, about a foot, close to Big Lee, which was exciting, one of the first blogs I followed. Joe won best participation game, I think it’s his sixth award in 3 years, for someone who’s been on this side of the hobby for about 5-6 years not bad eh.

It’s funny, I’ve become decensitisedish to Joe’s tables, I was wondering why so many folks, were taking pics, and then I look at the above photo’s and remember. Cos at the moment his tables are a cut above. But I see them so often I forget, the joys of being spoiled. It was another great day, great to catch up with all those lardies, I’ve never met a more welcoming bunch of nutters, I fit right in. Punters were awesome as always, someone even managing to get a hard copy of “What a Cowboy”, result. I think I’ll leave that there for now. Warfare next month.