"Latex roads? " Topic

So, I bought my first tube of DAP latex sealant to try out making roads (well, I bought one each of ivory, tan, and brown) and laid out three beads of the tan to get a two inch width 36" long – when I finally peeled it up I actually got 40". From that same tube I got about 24" of a much narrower, thinner piece.

Took a lot longer to 'cure' than I expected, four days (but it has been pretty hot here, into the nineties in the day, work surface under a porch on the shady north side of the house). Also, still more tacky than I want it to be. The main piece had a few minor holes in it that I think I've successfully filled with excess bits, will know better in a day or so. The thinner piece when peeled up ended up in three pieces – but when I say thin I really mean thin.

After one day of cure time I definitely decided to return the two unopened tubes since it was still so soft. But today I decided I'm going to give all three colors a try since it finally seems to have cured to an usable consistency.

So, what I'm interested in is hearing from others who've used this material and what techniques and conditions work best to get the best results?

My secret to share? I've had some glass shelves laying around for more years than I'll admit to and I used one of them as the base to lay the beads of caulk on and I'm pretty sure it works better than any alternative I can think of. Most of it peels up and I'm sure I can clean the rest off.

Two bits of information I'm really hoping for – a good release agent that doesn't contaminate the caulk and cleans up easy; also, what can be used to remove the post cure tackiness (I'm thinking to try talc powder and see if it works)?

I might still buy some of the commercially available product but I'm getting a kick out of trying to make my own. Someone showed up at a club meeting last time out and had some roads made with this, not spectacular but decent and effective.

Look forward to input. And thanks!

-- photos at a later time, too late and too dark out there --

I've considered making a few myself, only major issue is a friend of mine that tends to pick at things which would likely end up messing the roads up if they remained to near him, and the minor tears and rips along the edges of pretty much every latex terrain piece I've seen just from the heavier use and in the shaping of it, would make that hard to deal with on its own.

However, I'm planning a combined type using cloth, not sure if I want to go with felt or something else, probably just use canvas and then build from there.

For the tackiness, it might just need time to finish setting, most caulking tends to harden comparatively quick before taking a while to set. It's why you often have a 2-3 day wait with showers and similar when you get them done between tiling and use…it's hard, but not fully ready

I lay mine down with old bed sheets as backing material.
That way I do not any release agent and it gives the piece some strength.

I lay mine on wax paper. After it dries it is fairly easy to peel it away from the wax paper as both the caulk and wax paper are flexible. I just fill in any holes with more caulk.

I use wax paper, as well. Never had even the slightest trouble separating the two. I've been using my roads for 6 months, and they're still slightly tacky to the touch. I've never considered it much of a problem, really.

Borathan, you can easily trim latex roads up with scissors, and eliminate those frayed edges. They don't rip under normal use.

I cut out strips of "handy wipes" brand disposable towels, and lay these out on wax paper. The handy wipes prevent stretching or tearing when you peel the latex off the wax paper. Sometimes the wax paper sticks to the bottom of the handy wipes, as the latex has permeated the wipes, but I don't find this a problem, as the was paper can be cut or torn from where it shows on the edges and doesn't affect the finished product.

Here is a pic of some of my latex terrain in a game (I made all the roads and rivers using DAP caulk and this method).

I use the black "weed proof" cloth sold at most home repair stores or departmant stores. Its black, comes in big rolls, is cheap and very sturdy. I cut the pieces wider than I want, squeeze out the caulk, and then use a cheap paint brush (wall paint brush not miniatures paint brush) and spread it out. I then either put sticks or rocks in it and then use a stick to make ruts in it. It does take several days to dry. But once its done then I trim the edges.

I, too, thought of using wax paper but I worry it will 'crinkle' the bottom of the piece. Also considered a 'backing' material like canvas or weed cloth but I'm trying to avoid that if I can. And there just might be a good reason to avoid that backing material – just this morning I went out to check on my first pieces and discovered that the portion exposed to air and at the lower morning temperature has very little remaining tackiness but the side 'glass down' still is quite tacky. I'm going to leave that side 'air up' through the day and see what it is like when I get home from work. It might be that the greater exposure to air will reduce or eliminate the tacky quality (hoping!). I'm less concerned about strength and durability. Had in my possession for many years a friend's commercially made roads and never had any issue with durability or tearing. In fact, with his permission, I did eventually cut some pieces of straights and curves to gain some layout versatility.

So, two new questions: How well does the material take paint and what type of paint works best? And what sort of adhesive can be used to add texture to the material, things like ground foam?

Maybe by sharing our ideas we will all be able to create better items for our tables.

For my 20mm scale, I use cheap Ace bandages as the backing. Just stretch it out, secure both ends with tape, squeeze out the caulk, spread with a spatula, carve in ruts, etc., add rocks, wait to dry, then secure everything with some Krylon matte sealer. For my 28mm scale, I use rubber wall molding as the base and use the same techniques listed above. The 28mm roads are thus heavy and secure…

Cheap acrylic craft paints, latex house paint, and white glue work quite well.

If you used DAP in ivory, tan, and brown, chances are it was not pure acrylic latex caulk, but mixed with some silicon. At least where I live the only DAP caulk available without any silicon in it is white. I've been using that for my roads and painting it from scratch to fit in well with my ground-cover.

The reason I bring this up is that I believe the drying/curing process of the pure latex is preferable to the latex/silicon mix, for our hobby purposes. I've been able to find pure latex caulk in brown and tan at a couple of hardware stores, from a company called "Big Stretch".

I've also used White Glue to add pebbles and grains of sand to my latex roads, and that's worked well.

Has anybody tried putting their materials on parchment paper instead of wax paper? That stuff is like sorcery. When I'm basing my figures on washers, I put the washers on parchment paper then glob on enough epoxy to fill the hole in the middle and put my figure on top of that. When the epoxy has hardened, you can just pop them off the parchment paper like nothing.

So, a couple of weeks on and I tried (last week) putting the pieces in a "sand bath" and that seems to have done the trick in getting rid of most of the stickiness. Hosed off the sand yesterday and very, very little left. Haven't tried storing the pieces together yet, though. Suspect the stick to each other problem will always exist but maybe not. Will advise at some point.

Oh, the sand bath was just clean playground sand I had on hand from a different terrain building project.

Ivory tube is up next for experimenting with, maybe try it for a river section.

(Thread necro)

Has anybody tried putting their materials on parchment paper instead of wax paper? That stuff is like sorcery.

Indeed! I was going to get wax paper and my wife said, "I think you really want parchment paper. It will work a lot better for what you're trying to do." That stuff is great.

Smart woman, despite marrying a guy who takes the kitchen supplies to make roads for army men. :)