Road Striping

[Noah Lane]

What is your preferred method for striping modern roads?  I plan to have double yellow center striping, and white outer striping.

It seems paint pens would bleed, and/or be too thick for N-Scale?  I know DKS has used colored pencils on styrene roads, but I'm using foam board with a thin layer of plaster. I think colored pencil would 'dig' into the foam board.

Another issue is contouring the line up the middle of a curved road. The Woodland Scenics bendy ruler seems like a gimmick. Perhaps it's best to just use a short ruler, and make frequent markings to create an accurate center line?

I was thinking striping decals or some pinstripe-like tape might work well?  Is there a good product out there? 

Thanks for the help in advance!

Noah 


Here is the curved part of my road that looks to pose a challenge for striping

[peteski]

The white and yellow pencils are softer than regular graphite pencil.  They are like hard crayons.  You should be able to lightly draw the lines and that will make them look faded.

You can also use white and yellow paint markers with a fine tip, but those will be really out of scale (lines too thick).

Other than that, there isn't really good method for this (especially on a delicate surface like yours).  Another method would be to paint the road with the line color (yellow in the middle and, if needed, white on the sides), then use thin stripes of masking tape (or Chartpak tape if you happen to still find it somewhere) and apply those over the line color.  Then paint the road with the surface color and peel off the masking. But I don' think this would work on your delicate surface.

[tom mann]

The colored pencils will be fine.  They are really waxy and softer than your plaster.  I've seen DKS' results in person and I will never, ever even think about another method

Bendable rulers are pretty common for woodworking drafting (at least when I took drafting), so no gimmick.  For ~13 on Amazon, it will be a great time saver for you:

http://www.amazon.com/MLCS-9326-Woodworking-24-Inch-Flexible/dp/B001S2RAUM

[Chris333]

I was able to lay masking tape down and draw along the edge with the colored pencils. Was good for curved lines.

[davefoxx]

I'm jumping on the colored pencils' bandwagon, too.  This is a test that I did, thanks to the recommendation of DKS.  NOTE: Your yellow will contrast better if you draw white lines first, and then carefully draw the yellow lines over top of the white.



I gotta get one of those flexible rulers, so I can draw my curved lines, too.  Thanks for the link, Tom!

DFF

[Noah Lane]

Thank you guys for the input.

I have standard white and yellow colored pencils, and lightly tested them.  I found that the softness of the lead(?) was a disadvantage for transferring to the surface of my roads. There was just too much 'drag' and 'dig' with said pencils on this road surface. A more brittle graphite-like pencil lead almost seems like it'd work better.

Dave- I remember DKS using the white pencil under the yellow. More brilliance from DKS.  Dammit. I really wish the colored pencils worked better on this foam board.  I suppose I also wish that I would have put in more effort with creating the styrene roads 

I can see how to get the one line drawn using either a bendy ruler, or masking tape. But how about a double line? It seems like it'd be tricky matching up an accurate 1:160 second line -especially through the curves.  Perhaps I could fashion some "split end" type pencil for drawing double yellow lines...

My gut is telling me some sort of decal system would work best. But I have yet to learn of a specific product that has good reviews.

[carmelmodelrr]

I used Woodland Scenics "stripes" dry transfer decals for one set of roads on my layout.  They look really good, but they were really difficult to use--and I used them for straight roads only.  I used pin striping for the curves.  I've never been too happy with the pin striping material--I think it sits too high on the surface--but decaling on curves seems like it would be far too difficult.  For the record, I used Pactra 1/32" pin striping.

Dick Wroblewski
carmelmodelrr

[davefoxx]

Noah,

Maybe you should consider laminating thin styrene over the existing foam board.  If that stuff is that soft, I'd be concerned for how it will hold up to everyday handling anyway.  Just take some cardboard and cut up pieces to make templates to accurately cut your styrene.

DFF

[Noah Lane]

Dave- I have considered that. Even using some like an 0.030" -which I do happen to have sheets of.  Though this would create a bunch of extra work.

I may try adding another thin coat of joint compound, and a second paint layer.  This may increase the strength of the surface, and allow for colored pencils.

I'd still be curious to find good decal road striping that would work well through the curves.

[peteski]

I'd still be curious to find good decal road striping that would work well through the curves.

Unless you buy a sheet of solid yellow and solid white decal then cut the thin strips yourself, there will be clear film around the line which will most likely silver when applied to the flat paint used to represent pavement. Also decals (in my experience) do not stick well to flat paint.

You could probably apply them to curves with some decal setting solution to soften them and make them lay flat.  You might have to end up applying a shiny clear coat to the road, decal it then apply clear flat finish. Sounds like a lot of work instead of just drawing them on with a pencil.

[Jeff AKA St0rm]

I have always used paint pens. I have a ball point pen that puts out white paint. I can't find the same thing in the right colour of yellow so i have to use a thicker paint pen. I first tape the road with Tamiya tape and then fill the gap with the paint.

This is how it looks. With a bit of weathering it will make the line look a little less "Fresh". I still have work to do.

[Noah Lane]

Pete- okay, you pretty much talked me out doing decals.  sighhh

Jeff- I think paint pens are the best bet for my foam board roads. I think if I'm really careful (like you were), I can get a pretty good result (like you did).  I'll definitely do some test pieces of road first.

I appreciate all of the help, fellas.  I'll post results here when I'm finished.

[Csxmtsub]

This is what I used