Getting roads to just ruddy lay flat

If the unofficial hobby hang out asks for cobbled roads, then I’m not going to bow to peer pressure. I’m going to complete my dirt roads first.

I reviewed the previous attempts and I’m going for a low complexity solution. This will deliver what I want without too much faff.

First up, I’ve selected the below wallpaper. It has a good texture that should be enough to dry brush up nicely. Next step is to cut the rubber sheeting to the correct lengths. This includes various curves and junctions so that I can create a good layout on the table top. I’ve used a spray carpet glue to then attach the wallpaper. Once dry, everything gets a prime with a reddish brown primer from Halfords.

With the primer dry, time to start painting things up. I’ve picked up some cheap tester pots of paint from the hardware store. These were only a couple of pounds each and a much cheaper way of painting all roads!

Firstly, I’ve given everything a heavy wash of a dark brown paint. Once dry, I’ve lightly dry brushed everything with a lighter paint.

It looks OK so far and it is flexible, but to add a little more realism, I’ll try to add some tyre tracks. I’ve started by painting on some of the brown paint I used in the first step. This removes the drybrush highlights. To try to add more depth, I’ve then gone back in and painted a thinner black line in the middle of each brown line.

This gives me the below, which, while not brilliant, is good enough for me. It’s also cheap, I’m guessing at about a £3 per metre and fairly quick to produce. All in, this probably took about 10 hours of work and I now have enough dirt road to create a good road layout for a 6×4 table.

Next, I’ll start work on the cobbled roads.