CoE SB Roads

Making scenery can be a bit difficult to get motivated for unless you can do it quickly and easily, or you have a precision project you can get your heart and teeth into.  I wanted to make some road sections for my CoE Imperial Roman army but I wanted them done super quickly, and still look good.  So, I settled for using embossed wallpaper on hardboard as the basis of the project.  Hardboard sheets are very cheap and easy to cut - I use a heavy stanley knife - and the embossed wallpaper is around £5 a roll (this will do scale miles worth of roads) or, if you're sneaky, you may get a hefty sample for nothing.  Where possible, I get materials from the builders' merchant rather than the more expensive DIY stores. The materials and tools I used for the construction part of the project are as follows:

• Hardboard sheet
• Stanley knife
• Rasp
• Sandpaper
• Embossed wallpaper
• PVA glue
• Sand
• Marker pen

Each of the pictures may be clicked on to bring up a larger image in a new window.

I first cut the hardboard to match the length of my road sections; 30cm in this case. I then placed the cut sections together and measured out the desired width of the sections then drew with my marker pen to ensure that the sections would meet up neatly.  I even numbered the sections so I knew what order they would go in.

In the picture below, the top section has just been cut. All of the cutting, as I have said before, was done with a heavy stanley knife. The lower section has had its long edges bevelled and wallpaper glued on.  For bevelling, I first slice diagonally along the length of the section. Always do this slicing away from you.  Then I use a rasp to tidy and shape the edges a bit before finishing off with the sandpaper.

Below is a closer picture of the shaped edge before the final sandpapering.  The wallpaper is applied with PVA.

Next I take all of my numbered section and draw a line near to each long edge.

As you can see, this is a guideline for the sanded edges of the road.

Onto painting!  After a base coat of dark brown, I have used a tester pot of a colour close to Vallejo Earth. I always get tester pots of paint from the DIY shop for terrain making as using hobby paints is just too expensive.

I also have a tester pot that's close to Vallejo Brown Sand.  The embossed wallpaper really enhances this stage of heavy drybrushing.

I use Vallejo Iraqi Sand from the pot for the next, lighter drybrush.  Finally, I add another drybrush of Iraqi sand mixed with white.

And here are a couple of finished sections with a sprinkling of static grass.  I made 6' in total, spending an hour or so each day over three days.  I could have easily made treble that amount for a little extra time.  The same method, with a scattering of sand and rocks instead of the wall paper, and perhaps slightly raised sides, could also be applied to making streams.