Making Post-Apocalypse Road Terrain

Greetings, humans!

Today, because this is what I do sometimes, I'm going to show you how I made some post-apocalypse themed road segments.

Please to enjoy.

STEP 1

I used my Proxxon (not shown) to cut out these road shapes.  You could probably make nice, neat shapes, but I'm going for the "ruined" look.

EDIT!: It's been pointed out that you could probably do this with foamcore, if you don't have (or don't feel like dragging out) a Proxxon.

STEP 2

Cut out some plastic bases.  I used a "For Sale" sign, but they make plastic specifically for this sort of thing.  Put tacky glue on the back of the foam road.  Do it in a few dots, and maybe a line around the edge, minimalist-style, in order to keep the warping down.  Glue the thing to the thing.

STEP 3

Add texture!  This is the rolled-up foil trick.  Roll up some foil.  Roll it around on your foam.  Tricky!
Oops!  Forgot the extra bits.  Add chunks of broken road as needed.  Don't forget to texture as well.

STEP 4

Give it hell!  That is, draw some cracks and such with a ball-point pen.  Be careful not to tear the foam, but this is basically what it looks like.

Advanced nonsense!  You don't want to use CA glue on the foam, because it will eat away at it.  Unless you want it to eat away at it, which I do.  So I blobbed some glue in strategic spots and gave it a few minutes to work.  Ignore the screaming from the foam.  Such a drama queen!

Also, I forgot to bevel the foam edges.  So, you know, get in there with your hobby knife and take off some of those edges.

STEP 5

Go to bed!  You really shouldn't have started on this so late.  Don't worry.  It will still be there tomorrow.

STEP 6

Crap.  Where's my gravel?  Why do you keep moving my stuff?!

STEP 7

Rock and roll (and rocks)!  Blob down some tacky glue and then dump/place gravelly bits into it.  Well, maybe don't just dump them in.  It's not a bad idea to carefully place a few, or go back and pull a few out of the clump.  Just try to get it to look right.

STEP 8

While you're waiting for that to dry, how about making some guard-rails?  Just measure out some strips of cereal box cardboard about half of a centimeter tall (we're doing 15mm, you know) and...

Wait.  Why are some of these images in portrait mode?  Son of a... [fist shake!]

Anyway, also cut off some bamboo skewers about one centimeter tall.  I sanded down the edges a bit, too, to make them flat.  Then glue them in place (with CA glue, because it's just going onto the plastic).

What about the cardboard strip?  You'll have to wait for the next step, for no apparent reason.

STEP 9

Road sealant!  (And also the guardrail). (And also, you probably want give the glue on that gravel a chance to dry.)

So, glue, dry.  Attach the rail to the posts with CA glue.  maybe bend the rail up a little on one or both ends.

Then do the Mod Podge and black paint mixture thing, painting all over everything to seal it.  I guess you probably don't have to paint the plastic, but I do.  Might as well be consistent.

STEP 10

Clearly, you'll need to wait for the sealant to dry.  Then, it's painting time!

I painted the road a dark grey.  It would probably be a lighter, bleached grey in real life, but clearly this isn't real life. :P Nyah!

Then I dry-brushed it a lighter gray, but the whole thing looked too light and I think I overdid it with the drybrushing, so I applied a black wash (black paint, acrylic medium, and a bit of soap if I recall correctly).

Then, I hit it again, more carefully, with another, slightly lighter, dry-brush.  I suppose if you do things right the first time, maybe you can skip some steps.  Sorry.

Then, I painted the guard-rails a nice silver color, because metal.

STEP 11

Do some chores.  Your spouse has been eyeing you off and on all afternoon.  Don't worry.  This will keep.

STEP 12

Paint the not-road brown (or whatever).  I actually did a thing where I tried to give it a craqueler look, with a brown base (probably should have used something less red), darker brown for the cracks, and a lighter brown for the highlights.  It's a little cartoony, but it's striking.  You might instead try swabbing the not-road with CA glue and then sprinkling baking soda on it for a nice sandy texture that you can then paint brown, maybe wash again and dry-brush for highlights.  But that's not what I did.  It's ok.

STEP 13

Lucky!

Then I added lane lines.  This technique works for me sometimes, and sometimes it doesn't.  I think I hit about 40/60 here.  Still, it's not bad.  I put down some painter's tape, and then used a spongy thing (for stencils) to dab some white paint where the lines go.  I didn't tape down the edges, because I wanted a weathered paint look.  Tadah!

Oh, and then there's the rusty guard-rail.  I used a reddish brown in places, then a burnt orange on top of that, and then a smattering of an orangey yellow on top of that, and then a few speckles of black.  You've got to stick out your tongue the right way, but it can have nice results.

And that's that.  Now it's on to the wrecked car and road sign that you can see in the top of the last photo.  Hmm.  I probably should have included more measurements in here.  I'll have to come back for that later when I have a ruler.

Ĝis revido!

BONUS!
I finished the car!

++BONUS!
Finished the sign, too!

-Jason "Ludanto" Smith