Making Dirt Roads - WIP

 

The road sections with the wallboard paste freshly applied and sprinkled 
with railroad ballast material. When the sections dry, they will be dry brushed
and bits of green static grass will be applied.

Yesterday I started work on the 18 feet of dirt roads that I will need for my Gettysburg Pickett's Charge games at Little Wars and Historicon this year. The road sections are not finished yet, but I thought that you would enjoy seeing them as "work in progress."

My Method For Making Road Segments

The basic road segment is made from cork bottomed place mats that you would use on your dining room table. I bought mine from Target. Sometimes the mats aren't available in-store, so one can order them on-line and either have them delivered to your home or you can elect to pick them up at the nearest Target store. The placemats are 16-inches wide and so I cut them out of the cork at 5-inches wide by 16-inches long. I have also cut some shorter sections at 4, 6 and 12-inch lengths to give me flexibility when I set up a road on my game table. I also cut out some wedge shaped pieces that allow the road to curve in another direction.

I mix some brown acrylic paint into a quart or pint jar of pre-mixed spackle compound (it's basically drywall board paste) and stir in the paint until it looks like chocolate pudding. Then I use a small artist trowel or a spoon to slather the "goop" over the cork. Then I take the end of a paint brush and score some wheel tracks onto the road and then finish off the piece by sprinkling some fine railroad ballast (Woodland Scenics) onto the wet goop. I will let the goop dry overnight and then drybrush some lighter colors over the road section. When that is done, then I will glue down some green static grass to represent grass on the model.

Here are several pictures of the road sections that I have placed between the post and rail fences. The pre-mixed spackel compound has been slathered onto a section of a cork placemat, cut to 5" wide by varying lengths (6/12/16 inches). Once the goop dries I will get to work with some dry brushing of lighter colors onto the road piece and then glue down some bits of green static grass. The fence sections shown below are terrained in the same manner, although a lot more grass is glued down onto the fence sections compared to what I will use on the roads.

A nice overhead view of the Emmitsburg Road. The roads will be finished after 
the sparkle compound dries.

Before and After: work in progress.

Here you can see the cork place mats cut to 5-inches wide (where the cavalry figures are)
and before the wall board paste is applied. In the foreground you can see a road section
that has been gooped up with a mixture of wallboard paste and brown paint. Fine 
railroad ballast is sprinkled onto the paste while it is still wet.

I am estimating that my version of the Emmitsburg Road will stretch 18 feet across the game table. I have about 8 feet of road sections nearly finished and so 10 more feet of roads isn't as daunting as it sounds.