I've made a lot of progress on the roads for the suburban scene. I poured and sanded the plaster, filled in the potholes and gaps, and painted them with Woodland Scenics asphalt colored paint. I had to run various cars across there to make sure there's enough clearance for the couplers. The problem was mainly the old Roundhouse boxcars, the Kadee couplers drag low (a problem that I already had with those on some of the switches). To build up the crossing area to the height of the rails, I first used some old cork roadbed, then some spackle. I let that dry, then did the top with the road plaster. I stained and glued down some wooden rail guards (balsa wood) for a realistic look and to keep the plaster separate from the rails. I like how this came out, though the plaster seems to have lightened it a bit. But it allowed me to have a nice incline up to the rail height and a crossing even across (better than how this came out in the brewery loading area).
Someday I would love to get some (very expensive) working crossing gates for this scene. But that's for another day.
Lessons learned:
1. I used a heaver sandpaper this time, so it didn't take so long to sand. Plus I did some of it with a metal file. Even then, it's really hard to get it completely flat. Once you start painting, you'll see some of the little indentations.
2. I want to keep detailing along the tracks and the wooden rail guards because even after doing this carefully, you still see the outline of the white plaster underneath.
3. I'm still not a huge fan of working with plaster. I keep feeling like I'm handling it wrong, like there's some tricks to this that I'm not getting.
Next up: Drawing the road markings and then sealing the roads with a dullcoat finish. Then working on more ballasting - and figuring out exactly what blend to do the passing tracks and the industrial sidings.
