I'm not done with the highway overpass yet - but most of it is. Since the last post I built the bridge itself, cut and painted the roadway out of thin styrene, built some of the Jersey barriers, and painted and attached the signs.
I used some thick pieces of styrene for the bridge deck. I didn't attach it to the piers because it's near the edge and I wanted it to be able to get knocked off rather than broken off. For the roadway - those Woodland Scenics striping pens just don't want to work after a while. I was able to get a substitute at an art store nearby however, some Sharpie brand paint markers that work the same (and were cheaper). The Jersey barriers are made by Rix Products. I have to buy another pack of them to finish off the scene (and possibly use on the underpass). The highway signs were 3-D printed by Shapeways. I created some signs in Microsoft Paint and printed them out. They don't have a very deep end to anchor them into the ground, so I managed to find a plastic coffee stirrer (which was a lot harder to find than I imagined - they've gone the way of plastic straws), attach some of that to the end, drill a hole, fit it in there, fingers crossed it'll stay in place.
I'm pretty pleased with how this came out so far. The bridge acts as a nice scenic divider for the layout, and the signs give it a little sharp realism. I still need my 4-year-old nephew to give this a look and see if it works.
Still left to go: besides more Jersey barriers, I'm still waiting for Walthers to get the guardrails in stock. And eventually to put some ground cover on the embankments. I might also stick a piece of hardboard on the end so nothing rolls off the road down into the middle of the layout underneath. I need some other little touches too - like a speed limit sign, maybe a mile-marker, maybe some tire streaks on the pavement. Maybe lights someday.
Lessons learned:
1. Thin styrene was easier to work with than plaster, to make a road. But you would still need to build it up to a certain level in some places.
2. Spend some time to make things close to the right size, but at some point you have to selectively compress. This thing was wide enough already, and that's only with 2 lanes each way (most would be 3 each way). Plus I didn't really include shoulders.
