Quick Roadway Markings

While obsessing on my post-apocalypse terrain, I got to the point of putting markings on the roadways; lane strips, stop-bars, and crosswalks.  I had done this some years before by masking with tape and brushing on the markings, a relatively slow and somewhat tedious process. 

This time around, I had intended to use paint markers and a straight-edge.  I figured that it would be easier, but hadn't realized how much time it would save.

The process was very simple, first I located the markings with white or yellow colored pencils.  Just a couple of small marks at the beginning and end of each roadway marking.  Then I lined up a straight-edge with the marks, and simply draw on the marking with an acrylic paint marker.  It took about 35 minutes to do all 36 feet of roadway.    You can see the result in the following photos:

Despite the rough surface of the pavement, the markings came out very bold without much effort.

The Elmers Painter paint markers and the colored pencils used are pictured below:

The markers are available from Dick Blick art supplies in the US:

http://www.dickblick.com/products/elmers-painters-paint-markers/

I probably wouldn't have thought to mention these, but happened to come across another gamer's post this weekend talking about the work invested in masking his roadways to locate the painted markings.

In my case, I am creating post-apoc terrain, so want the markings to be end up very faded and sometimes totally obscured.  Had this been new or maintained  roadway, the markings would have been applied to a smoother surface, and would have been even cleaner and more distinct.  After applying the markings, I then began to apply washes and brybrush to "age" the markings.  The work isn't done, but the photos below show the beginnings of the process.

A single yellow and single white marker were more than enough to complete my terrain, and probably could have done twice as much.  Anyway, just thought that I'd mention them, as they were easy to use and took about a quarter of the time that I had expected.

Update on the Apocalypse

I finally got some time to work on the end of the world this weekend and completed a major step forward, though it doesn't really look like I made much progress.

I got the roadbed glued down and all of the road tiles coated with acrylic paste. This was a fairly time consuming process that involves gluing fine ballast o the roadbeds with artist's acrylic matte medium, allowing it to dry, and then "painting" a coat of acrylic paste over the roadbed and on all of the non-road surfaces of the road tiles. The primary materials are shown below.

A coat of acrylic matte medium was painted onto the roadbed, the ballast sprinkled over it, and the excess poured off.  Once the matte medium was dry, the terrain looked like this:

I also added more detailing , such as missing retaining walls, more decay to the concrete, etc:

After the matte medium was dry, any loose ballast was brushed/dumped off, cracks in the roadbed where cleared of ballast with a dental pick, and the terrain tiles were coated with acrylic paste. This gives the terrain a milky finish and, locks the ballast in, softens the texture of the ballast, and acts as a primer for the paint.

Next I will add more cracks into the roadbed surface with a Dremel tool, and then begin painting.

Sorry the progress isn't more dynamic, but this is a major step with respect to time before getting on to some of the more interesting work.