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This is a technique which I stumbled upon by accident. I don't know why it
works, but I like the results.
- Let's assume that you are making your own terrain pieces or terrain board,
and you want to add a road. (In my case, I build my terrain for microarmor out
of hexagonal pieces of styrofoam.)
- Measure and mark your road on the base material. If you want it to look
"right," try to keep the width of the road regular (you don't want it widening
out one place and narrowing somewhere else). I use a pencil, pressing down
hard enough to leave a mark and an impression in the styrofoam.
- Get your sand ready to go. What you want is very fine black sand, the kind sold
in craft stores for making sand art. I've seen two "sizes" of sand, one with a
grain similar to table salt, and one that is finer. I prefer the finer scale
for microarmor (1/300) scale. Store the sand in a sealable container which you
can easily pour from, such as a plastic kitchen container with snap-on lid.
- Apply gray paint where you want the road to be. You want to lay a good wet
coat of paint, but not so thick that you can see bumps of paint. I use Ceramcoat,
an acrylic paint found in craft stores. Make sure that your paint is compatible with the
base material (some enamel paints will eat styrofoam, for instance).
- Pour the sand over the wet paint. Keep pouring the sand until the road is
well covered, then pour some more -- you can't pour too much sand. Don't press
the sand, don't touch it, let gravity do its work. (Obviously, you probably want
to put a tray or large bowl beneath your terrain to catch any spills.)
- After perhaps a minute, lift your terrain piece and pour the sand back into
the original container. Turn the terrain upside down, and shake it slightly.
- Let it dry. The paint acts as glue, and also "fills in" any spaces which get
missed by the sand.
If you want to get fancy, you can add ditches along the sides of your road. The
easiest way to do this is to simply paint brown or tan streaks along the path of
the road. (Do this first, before applying the gray paint, and make sure the tan
paint is dry before pouring the sand.) If you have the patience, you can actually
cut "ditches" along the sides of the road, and even add weeds (colored flocking or
sand).
In large scales, you may want to add traffic stripes. Use an old brush (because the
dried road acts like sandpaper to a brush). My technique is to use paper and tape to
mask off where I want the lines to go, then dry brush with white or yellow paint to
mark the lines.
Pouring the sand back into the original container risks polluting the sand with
bits of non-sand. If you can afford it, then don't pour the sand back. If you are
as cheap as I am, then you get used to picking a few imperfections out of the road
surfaces before they dry.
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