Terrain - how to make Snowy Roads

 

A few weeks ago I posted some photos of snowy roads or tracks that Lee and myself made for our Retreat from Moscow shenanigans. Several times I've been asked how we made them, luckily I took a few photos as we went along.

I had an idea of what I wanted, something flexible, so it would hug any terrain features, hills and alike and be heavy enough not to move around or curl at the edges.

I thought of the idea of using rubber mats, like you get at a gym, but these were very expensive and I didn't want to waste money if it didn't work.

Then one day walking around Poundland I noticed these door mats, which I thought would be ideal, especially as they were covered in little nipples to brush mud off of your shoes. I thought that would help keep on my caulk mixture in place. So like an idiot I bought 2, thinking that would be enough, I should have bought at least 5 of them!!! They only cost £2.50 each

I'd previously cut 1 mat out into various shapes and while Lee spread our mixture over the roads, I cut out more using just a pair of scissors. I was a little worried at first as the nipples were very visible and might ruin the whole plan?

What is this special mixture you have, I hear you ask. Well its this from Screwfix, No Nonsense, Flexible Caulk. Any brand will do, but its GOT to be flexible. This was just over £4 a tube.

We squirted 3 tubes into my wife best mixing bowl, (no, not really!) and added a few more squirts of a cheap brown acrylic paint and a splash of water, I was going to add a handful of sand but I didn't want it to dry out too quick. Next time I do this I will.

We left the downside of the mat plain, again this should do the job it was made for and help grip whatever its laid on?

I next painted over with our earth brown base colour, I gave it 2 generous coats. On the last coat I sprinkled on some sand.

To be honest you don't need to do this, but I was getting impatient waiting for the paint to dry.

The sand also helped cover up some of the nipple shapes.

One stupid thing I forgot to do, was cut out a T junction.....doh!

When it was fully dry, I gave it all another coat of paint, some of the sand came off, but most stayed in place.

You can hardly see the nipples now?

Lucky my wife was out this day, because I did all this work on our dinner table, lets hope she doesn't read this post?

Next up was a dry brush all over with white paint, again the same as we did with our bases.

Which came out pretty well.

Next up I scooped on our snow mixture on the edges of the roads, the mixture is just Woodlands scenic Snow, mixed in with a good quality PVA glue until its like a porridge consistency, if it urns out a little dry, just add a little water.

Next up I added a little water to some of the snow mixture and with a 2 inch brush, painted the mixture over the exposed road, to try and make to look slushy. I think it worked?

So there you go, How to make Snowy Roads!