RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

This was made using a flat piece of styrene that comes in a bathtub surround repair or remodeling kit. These kits usually have 3 large squares of flat very tough styrene in them and can be scored to represent the joints between cobblestones. Fancy cobblestone patterns would be hard to do. After scoring the joint lines paint the whole sheet with a black hobby paint that regular paint thinner for enamels will not remove. Then start painting all the little squares to represent the individual cobbles
When finished it can be cut to whatever size you might need or even if cut in a strip since its flexible you could make a road with hills and valleys.

That's the kind of surface I am looking to do Giant...I'm going to have to shop around and see if I can find some of that material...looks really sturdy and durable... not to mention very light

Thanks for the tip Giant

ALPHA

Cool! Now to scour the dump for an old surround thrown away!

The stuff is hard to work. I had to use the tip if Needle files to score it deep enough to make lines without cutting through it. It is thin and a very hard styrene. I also tried using Luan type floor underlayment plywood that's about a quarter inch thick. It normally has one very smooth side and one side in which the wood grain is very visible. Using a wedge shaped tip on a hobby style wood burning iron in the smooth side works well to make the scored lines is quicker and although you really have to press down hard to make the scorings deep enough you can make some pretty fancy cobble patterns with it. Finishing the coloring of the cobbles is done the same as with the styrene and the scored lines will be a little wider. DO not use any type of water based paint on the wood material as it makes it swell up a little and the wood grain becomes more visible even on the smooth side of the Luan. These sheets can be usually bought in 4x8, 4x4 or 2x4 ft pieces at most of the larger home improvement stores in the USA. I couldn't find a big enough piece in my scrap pile to do a whole section but I did try it out on some very small scraps and the results were very good for making a flat cobblestone.

I'll have to remember to look for some of that the next time I visit the Hardware store

Thanks again Giant...that stuff looks perfect

ALPHA

Good luck ALPHA. Bye the way painting each of those little blocks may make you wish you never started if you do a piece as big as mine all at once.

greengiant wrote:Good luck ALPHA. Bye the way painting each of those little blocks may make you wish you never started if you do a piece as big as mine all at once.

Thanks Green....Getting to the point where a backdrop would be a nice touch to some of my photos...add a little touch of fun

ALPHA

ALPHA, also makes the realism of your models stand out more as they look more like real vehicles.

greengiant wrote:ALPHA, also makes the realism of your models stand out more as they look more like real vehicles.

Mine are only as real as the anime ...but it would add to the memories which made it such a good one

ALPHA

ALPHA, if you use the Luan underlayment you could make just about any type of flat you want. from inside of industrial bldgs. to bridges
you would have to do some jigsaw cutting to make a good looking bridge flat. The rest is all painting things to look more 3 dimensional then they really are. I had some experience doing that on a large scale during high school when I would make backdrops for school plays.