There are several ways of achieving a tarmac effect.
In the larger scales I have known modellers use very fine sand paper, usually flour paper, which is extremely fine, but has just enough texture, and also happens to be a good dark grey.
In tha smaller scales you could try artists mounting board, as this has an element of texture to it, with just a coat of paint. This is the approach used by railway modellers when creating roads.
I have heard of mixing kitty litter and wood glue, tinted with acrylic paint as tarmac. Lay down a layer of litter, mix up the glue and paint, and pour it over the litter. Cover the mess with saran wrap and roll over the area with some kind of rolling pin (rattle can would work) this mixes the glue with the litter, creating the look of aggregate showing through the tar. I tried it once, but changed my mind with the diorama. When I get another chance, I’m going to work to improve on this. I think I saw this first in an issue of FSM .
Occupational Hazard??? [:D][:D] I hope you didn’t use the litter after the cat, I guess I should have said to use it straight from the container, not “used”.
Richard,
auto supply & autobody shops are also good potential sources of fine sandpaper.
i have gotten sheets in the neighborhood of 3200 grit made by 3M at Pep Boys.
I am currently building a tarmac diorama in a large scale (1/48). This is my first entry into the world of diorama’s. I got a piece of plywood, put a border of small wood around, then poured on a mixture of celluclay (drywall compound). I accidentally mixed it too thin, and it poured right on. As it dried (forever!!) I carved lines into it with a piece of sprue. Once dried, I filled the cracks with white glue to emulate fresh tar repairs (painted black). I used a feather to give the appearance of small cracks running throughout.
Hope it helps???
Sammy
Just to clarify, if you’re working on an airfield ramp it’s proper name is just that: “The Ramp”. If it is made of a tarmacadam or “tarmac” substance it’s still technically a “ramp” or a “taxiway” or a “runway”. Sometimes asphalt is used as part of the substrate, and sometines (more commony now) concrete. But just don’t call it “The Tarmac”. Never understood why they were so silly about this but hey - they’re flight instructors who risk their necks every day to teach Yahoo’s like me how to fly (or NOT!) Maybe they don’t got all their M&M’s in one bag huh? [(-D]
I got severely corrected in flight school by more than one instructor about this point. [soapbox][:P]
Here’s a little ramp area I am putting together for photo work. Its a basswood base I got at Michael’s for a couple bucks with a very thin piece of sheet plastic cut and glued on with Zap adhesive. I scribed the squares with my scribing tool (cracks and all) and then pre-shaded and painted. Its been weathered with pastels and washes. A thin rough grass edge will be added to the backside and the wood base will be painted with a semi-gloss black. Total build time should be about 21/2 hours at a cost of about $7.50. (its about 10 inches in diameter).
uilleann, Thanks for the ground school lesson[^] I guess I have been calling a “ramp” tarmac for a lot of years 45 plus or so [D)]. Joe, that is a nice looking base[bow] what paint did you use as that is the appearance I am looking for[?]
Hi Richard…I actually used Aeromaster’s RLM 75 and oversprayed that with a very thin very light Polly Scale Medium Sea Gray to add some color variation. Thinned Polly Scale Grimy Black was used for the oil stains. I highlighted the scribed lines with a dark gray artist’s pastel pencil and then used some dark gray, dark brown and rust washes along the seams. The weathering does not show up in the flash photo to well unfortunately. The color may be a bit dark…it depends where the scene is…ww2 Europe cement seems to have been more dark gray than cement found in the USA during the same period. As mentioned here earlier, the Brits used a lot of tarmac that looks nearly black and of "sand-papery " texture in color photos. Try to find some color photos of your subject area and do a little experimenting.
Slightly of topic, but in a similar vein, I have just put together a dio base for my Ar555, which features a concrete runway. I cut the slabs individually from a sheet or picture framers mounting board, bought from a local art shop.
This comes in lots of colours, inluding several which are close to concrete, which I bought, and tarmac, so well worth a look.
The mounting baord is great because it possess a slight surface texture and is easily cut. I sprayed mine with a base coat of Tamiya Deck Tan, followed by low lighting the edges with a thin spray of RLM79, to simulate old and discoloured concrete.
I then sprayed the whole runway section lenghtways with a light streaks of RLM66 to simulate tire scrub, and general dirt.
I am doing something similar and was wondering what could be used to give the concrete base a proper texture?? Did you leave yours smooth? I was thinking of using fine sand, but then wasn’t sure if I’d end up covering up my scribed lines.
