building asphalt roads

Aquarium sand is found at pet stores and is super-fine... The silica sand would be the same thing, I guess...  There's also the sand used for sand paintings available at arts & craft stores

yeah hans, but ya know you have to make those details. its the details that give it life and character...well, we had this conversation once b4...LOL. trust me i want to skip out on some of the details on my current dio build...modelchasm just keeps adding more details to put in it! ultimately i understand...even though i want to quit, cut corners and smash it every time i look at it...LOL, i know that if i make the effort it should pay off. but you know all this and now i feel like im just wasting breath! guess i took the scenic route in agreeing with you!!!

Division 6 wrote:

I've seen a few people use sand paper glued to a board. Some of the black wet/dry stuff should work for smaller scales.    Eric...

Problem with that is is that folks know what sandpaper looks like, so they don't get fooled easily by it... It'll work, viewers will know what it's supposed to be, but I figure that the terrain and everything else on a diorama is the same as the models on it... You've got a model tank you're trying to make look real, structures that you're trying to make look real, so you should treat the ground the same way... You're building a model road that you want to look real... So you need to put just as much thought and effort into that road as the duece you got rolling on it, right?

Everything on the base is part of one great big model... Skimping on one part is the same as doing say, a super-detailing and beautifly painted and weathered tank, and leaving the tracks unpainted and in the "realistic color" they're molded in... 'Course, that's just me... It's also one of the reasons (ah hell, it's the MAIN reason... Who'm I kiddin'..) I have only two finished dioramas in 7 months, lol...

Hans von Hammer wrote:

Go for it... I just go the cheap route, lol...

no really i appreciate it hans alot. i also try to go the cheaper route if i can help it so i do thank you. i went this morning to look at what the model railroads have to offer...i dont think its realistic enough for what im doing...so i will try your idea and play around with my own and division 6 may go that route as well. thanks guys...and i still welcome other input!

I've seen a few people use sand paper glued to a board.

Some of the black wet/dry stuff should work for smaller scales. 

Eric... 

Dunno about any article, but I make mine from joint compound (sheetrock mud).. It'll crack naturally as it dries if you put it on thick enough too... Or you can scribe cracks into it with the backside of your knife or sawblade...

I basically just nail down (with counter-sunk straight pins) a couple strips of basswood to make the formers, then pour the mud into the form and, using another piece of basswood planking (or a popsicle stick) that's longer then the width of the form, pull it back keeping both ends on the formers and smooth the "asphalt" that way, much the same way you do concrete... I sometimes mix some black tempera paint into the mud beforehand to color it, but usually just paint it after the fact...  I use thick acrylic paint, black or very dark gray, to simulate patches...  Texture can be an issue in larger scales, I use baking soda mixed with the tempera paint in 1/48th, aquarium sand for 1/32nd-1/35th, and for 1/25th and larger regular sand...