Trucks around the yard

[Stickframe]

@Johnnych01, thanks, John! Yes, that sign - considering the decrepitude of the shed, no way it would still be square!

@Uncle-Heavy, ha!

@Dioramartin, thanks Tim, but, you of all people get the dio-builder’s need-for-tedium! lol. Yes, weathering board by board, and nailing board by board - yep, great idea As for the broken boards and rot in corner, glad you noticed that. It seemed to call for something unique. Oh, and my exceptionally high tech photo stand:

May I introduce the humble street bollard! Turns out there’s a bicycle boulevard near me, and well, they use these to separate cars from bikes, whereas, I use them to photo my art!

@KoSprueone, hi KSO, as a fellow rail enthusiast I’m sure you’ve seen these in the train stores. Very inexpensive and: 1) hard to use on (to cut in and install flush!) loco long hoods; and, 2) perfect for this!

@Barney, thanks from here on the big trick will be to not screw it up!

Speaking of the potential to screw it all up, how about coloring the vast expanse of pavement?

Yeah - build up some confidence and see what happens, and count on some positive energy from the great Bob Ross:

So the process is to spray “wet water” (aka: Wetting Aid by Golden) mixed with regular water in smallish patches (I tried for about 20% of the total size of the paved area at a time) then randomly drop one of three shades of Vallejo Model Air, and blend with a wide brush.

While this is not hard to do, it did take some nerve to actually start, so here we go - color coat 1, using Pale Blue Grey:

Let sit over night, and apply coat 2, with Dark Grey Blue:

And, the next day coat three, with Dark Sea Grey:

As these are each essentially giant applications of acrylic washes, the colors build up as stains, rather than painting per se.

And a close up:

So while this has been multi step process, the results are good so far. Next is to detail the surface, by adding dirt color washes where the pavement has been eaten away to gravel and dirt then to add accent Anthracite Grey washes to selected cracks - maybe even some slimy green where water might be prone to stand.

While not easy to see, I’ve been adding other landform features with various textures around the perimeter while waiting for paint to dry. They’ll be stained the same way - adding a variety of color washes to get the look I’m after. These areas will eventually get some grass and vegetation.

OK, hopefully the next picture will show the pavement done.

Cheers
Nick

[Stickframe]

As I was out on my bike pedaling around the Port of Oakland this morning, it occurred to me that some of you might be wondering just what my idea for the asphalt shown above actually is.

First though, the Port is big, and very busy during the week, but on the weekends, it is quiet, with few cars, so a guy can ride long distances with few interruptions. If you are a normal person, you can appreciate some really nice views, like this:

Today is nice and sunny, without much wind, so good for riding - this is from Middle Harbor Park, looking toward San Francisco, But, if you happen to be, well, not into that, there are lots of interesting things for model builders to look at, like, naturally, pavement:

Oh what a treat! cracked old pavement of all types! It seems to come in all shapes, patterns, textures and colors! I suppose if I was really trying to get this right, I could have blended the pumice gel with the crackle paste - but, no, I’ll leave that great idea to someone else

I’m still adding colors to the pavement and surrounding landscape - hopefully an update in a few days -

Cheers

Nick

[Barney]

Well I for one think you did a bang up job on your asphalt. It definitely matches what is in your area. My only reservation may be a bit too much crackling, but it does match the really rough spots?

The next scene for this base could be an asphalt company coming in to re-pave!

[Uncle-Heavy]

Prompted by the question from @Barney above:
If the diorama contains a small section of public road, even if it is just
a narrow strip, could it be possible that this narrow strip has a better
paving, not new but still a lot better than the paving in the yard?

[Tank_1812]

@Uncle-Heavy

If the diorama contains a small section of public road, even if it is just
a narrow strip, could it be possible that this narrow strip has a better
paving, not new but still a lot better than the paving in the yard?

Yes, at least around here as a public agency would be more than be handling the public street and the yard would be private property handled by the company.

[Stickframe]

Hello model builders, @Barney, @Uncle-Heavy and @Tank_1812, well shoot - of course when I read this yesterday, I did wonder In my imagination, this (what I built) was just right - but, what if it wasn’t…disaster???

I pondered this as I headed out on my bike, and well, a bike is a pretty good seat for looking at asphalt (oh, I know how to live) - so, as I rode, I took more pictures along the way:

I should have thought of the place shown directly above earlier - I hate riding this road - for about 1.25 miles almost everyday. And, even on my fat tired, chromoly framed bike, this road is awful!! This picture is actually of a less bad stretch of the road!

And in about another mile and a half, more bad road:

and then about 12 miles out:

What occurred to me is that when you are riding or walking along, while unpleasant to travel across, it is easy to not notice exactly what’s going on - I noticed it “officially” when at some point I stood up while riding and happened to look more or less straight down, like the pictures of the model. But if you are traveling along, while it’s pretty easy so see the texture and patterns, it seems to blend, and vanish in the distance - whereas when looking straight down, well, it looks like a crazy pattern (which it is).

So, to see if this revelation mattered, I took some different pictures of the dio:

Looking at these, I think we are doing ok - very much to my relief!

As for who maintains these streets in real life, believe it or not, each City around here has a city-wide pavement management program (the status/condition of each street is recorded and mapped in GIS), controlled by the public works department(s). However, as each of the cities I ride through are pretty big, and most of these places in old industrial areas, I imagine they are low priority problems. Major boulevards, and streets running through larger nhoods are in better shape.

As for this project, and like it would be on a real project or place here, the paved area is on private land, so in that case, it’s up to the property owner to fix it.

Bringing us to yet another thrilling task: making tall grass:

Oh what a treat. This is a slow and unpleasant five step process:

1. grab a small bunch of grass
2. fold the bundle over the end of the pick
3. drop some CA into the fold gap
4. twist until tight
5. remove and do again and again.

Yes, a real pleasure. I’ve done this before, and, like before, the most I am willing to make in one sitting is about 50, or only 38 as shown - this sucks.

Most of the perimeter of the dio gets this tall grass.

Ok, thanks for having a look -

Cheers
Nick

[Tank_1812]

@Stickframe

As for who maintains these streets in real life, believe it or not, each City around here has a city-wide pavement management program (the status/condition of each street is recorded and mapped in GIS), controlled by the public works department(s). However, as each of the cities I ride through are pretty big, and most of these places in old industrial areas, I imagine they are low priority problems. Major boulevards, and streets running through larger nhoods are in better shape.

At least here and I think in CA, some city streets are private and not maintained by the city.
CA example:
https://www.clearlake.ca.us/DocumentCenter/View/2497/City-of-Clearlake-Map-of-Public-and-Private-Streets

The pavement cracking and rutting is not good in that stretch.

[Uncle-Heavy]

Those roads are indeed awful …

[namengr]

My last few years before retiring were spent doing asphalt road work. i usually ran the finish roller. Around here each ward’s alderman would submit a list of streets in his ward to be resurfaced each year. Unsurprisingly streets that his friends or supporters lived on got first choice. Also high traffic areas were done more often, so if your business was in a newer part of town they might get more street work than an older part of town. Also, there are different mixes of asphalt, so the texture could vary from coarse to very smooth. We put some down on a bridge deck that was almost pure sand/oil mix. Wayne

[Barney]

You nailed the ruts perfectly.

[Stickframe]

well as we continue with grass, or making clumps of it, we can have fun talking asphalt!

@Tank_1812 , you know Ryan, I looked at that image from Clear Lake - and have no guess why so much of the City has private streets? That is not too common to see around here. As long as we’re getting into this discussion, it seems private streets are more commonly seen (generally) in the case of gated or otherwise defined communities where public access is limited, or regulated, in which an HOA (home owners association) or similar board or private district owns and maintains roads, or in unusual (residential) settings, where narrow streets (but, they must still meet various engineering and fire codes) are used, like you might see around some town houses or small cluster/uniquely designed neighborhoods, also owned and maintained by and HOA.

A typical reason for both is that the roads are not public roads, as in not owned by the public, so the municipality won’t maintain them. In more typical (residential) areas, the developer must build streets to local standards, and then dedicate the land to the City, who in turn, is responsible for their maintenance. There are lots of reasons behind either choice, but administration of the decision leading to either is addressed as part of the development agreement (a legally binding doc), which developers are required to prepare when building projects that include new public infrastructure.

OK, good times there - and now, some good times here:

nope, not really, still working on the grass.

Cheers
Nick

[Tank_1812]

@Stickframe

and have no guess why so much of the City has private streets?

It’s hard to know but more than likely some politics when the streets were built. My subdivision is mixed with public or private maintenance streets. The private streets were probably because someone didn’t submit paperwork.

The grass looks good.

[loncray]

When I first glanced at your grass picture, I thought you were building a 1/350 carrier airwing full of wee gray planes.