Paving the Roads

I have a knack for putting myself through a ton of work on my dios, this one is no different! I have begun the casting of the cobblestone setts that will be used to pack the roads on this base. The casting is a long process on a project this large.

Each time I pull the castings I get 75 stones. The estimated number needed to par all the roadway is roughly 3,200; all cast, cleaned and set individually onto the base. While this is a grueling process and I have had many people tell me I am crazy and I should do it a simpler way, the fact is this is the most realistic look as it is done like the real roads. 

To help smooth out the ruts in the roadway and to give a better surface for the stones to be glued, I have used sanded tile grout to cover the insulation foam used for the basic shapes.

In the end the work will pay off as it has on other projects I have done. I have a small pile of castings that I have begun a quick dry placing to check the look and to place the sewer covers, all looks good to me so now I will begin the real layout of the stones.

I began the roads by laying stones running up the sides to "frame" in the road, later the sidewalk curb will go up against these. Then following the angle of the base I began laying the field setts.

I have much more casting to do to finish the roads as you can see, but it will all be done in the same manner as seen here. Once the stones are in place I will go over them with filler to represent the dirt and sand in between all of the stones.

Here is a shot of where it sits now and to give the feeling of the finished look.

I will see you back here next time for more updates!

Happy modeling folks!