Let's Make - Cheap & Easy Dirt Roads, Tracks & Paths

hey it's raining axe Mel the drain to the back in the studio and back with another let's make for you now we're continuing our sort of Greenfield countryside scenic series yeah there'll be a link up in one of these corners where you can go check it out but in this particular video what we're looking at is sort of do tracks dirt roads you know countryside roads but specifically not cobbled roads or tarmac specifically do roads in this one now fundamentally it's just essentially basing what rows tend to be long and thin and that can cause issues with warping so we're going to be looking at a load of different techniques or combat that and make some awesome looking watch roads so shall get dragged on come on now when it comes to roads and tracks and that sort of stuff there's lots of different ways we can do this as war gamers but what I want to do is stick with the materials we've mainly been using in our let's makes because you technically if you following these along you'll already have these materials and so you won't have to go out and buy anything out or any new techniques now when it comes to making roads in that sort of stuff it is essentially basing you know it's not a massive challenge to to make roads but roads presents certain challenges and the problem is that they tend to be yeah specifically the straight long and thin and we know that because we want our rows to sort of blend in with our tables and not be the little Hills yeah we want them as flat as possible and we know from past experience that flat thin long you know pieces they tend to warp and so in this video what I'm going to be doing is showing you a few different ways of sort of battling the wall now Wagah I'm battling the war for sound like a gray night right yeah what I've got is three pieces are four inches three and a half and two or two-and-a-half I think yeah and we're going to do a road sort of a track and a path okay now obviously if we're going to build these up yeah what we need to do is firm this one up yeah so with this one first our road what I'm going to do is I'm going to use these yeah lollipop sticks popsicles popsicle sticks if you stateside basically all I've done is I've cut for out a pre-measured them so that they fit and if I bring them up yeah you'll notice just at the very edges yeah I've just gone along with a bit of a bevel now for base in my roads and the past I've got my standard expanded PVC yeah it's three mil stuff yeah as always I've just picked it up as scrap from the sign printers and all I'm going to do and specifically using a gel superglue yeah or normal superglue bruh superglue I'm going to glue these onto here okay I'm basically create a rim either side so I'm going to do that now so there we are they're going down now and it makes a hell of a difference I mean it really does yeah now I've got no fears now that I don't have to worry about warping with this piece now and obviously if you doing curves and that sort of stuff it'll take a bit of shaping you have to cut them and that sort of book yeah that is a very simple way of studying up and since the pot popsicle sticks like pop sticks are only sort of 2 mils you only got 5 mil up here which means it will sit on the table beautifully yeah without sort of looking like too much now the next step okay is I need to cover and blend these edges in so if I bring that up yeah we've got a bit of a step there and it's a bit flat so I want to put a bit of filler on that this but before I do yeah I want to do some work on this one now okay what happens if you I don't want pop two popsicle sticks on and boast what else you have you got for me right standard E PVC again yeah this time Millie pull Millie put is a two-part epoxy putty yeah so basically mix these two parts together and you get a putty that will go rock hard now it doesn't shrink so it won't warp air-dry and clay does shrink so if we if I put air drying clay on this yeah it would warp it so Millie pull yes I'm going to mix some of this up yeah and I'll get this down on here so I've rolled out a nice thin bit now it's mixed up yeah a little roll and all I'm going to do is I'm going to drop it down onto there yeah just like that and then fingers on the side just come along I sort of push it down I'm not trying to get it perfect I'm just trying to get stuck to the board at the minute and we can shape it afterwards it's a bit steep in it so yeah put it on like that yeah and then all I do is with my thumb yeah and a little bit water where's my water I find me water yeah but with my thought thumb I'm just gonna smooth it down and make these a little less prominent yeah yeah so I'm going to do this on this side I'm going to do on this side and then I'm going to just add a couple of the middle okay so there we have a guy's yeah I put my rolls out I pushed them down I've smoothed them out with a wet finger okay and I've put some blobs down the middle now when these dry yeah this will go really rock hard and it will really toughen this up and resist that warping okay so just go ahead leave these to dry now yeah and it's used very little I probably used a ball about that big yeah now on top of that I've got my sort of path track here okay and I put some blobs on that but they're purely cosmetic I don't need to worry about warping on this piece and the reason be is before I actually put the blobs on I basically tape to the bottom half of it what this does is it really toughen it up I don't want to bend it because it's got the stuff on yeah but it really does make a difference and all that is is this standard brown parcel tape now this has got no giving it no stretch whatsoever so by putting a piece of that underneath there I reinforce this and so when it tries to warp it's warping against you know it's sort of pulling against a much larger force yeah than just the material alone yeah so it won't warp now there is one thing I need to do yeah I've just got to put a little bit of filler onto here okay so I'm going to push those two there cuz I can't grip those up yet until watch pull it until that that milliput is dry which will take a narrative yeah so get out my filler spackle in the u.s. I use dial from being cute lovely stuff yeah I get the finger out cuz I like a Nessie yeah I get my watch with my piece with that's really firm yeah we are watching popsicle sticks on C I'm starting to call them popsicle sticks now no I'm going to do is I'm just looking to blend in that edge yeah that's all I'm looking to do so bring that up yeah and then with our finger I can sort of smooth it off yeah every no you see so I'm going to do is where I've got all these edges and stuff I'm just gonna blend these in okay I'll back on with that now I do like playing with Phillip gets all messy right there you go now it is rather shiny isn't it but you should be able to see how basically I've got the hums on there just a little bit of a bevel and if we put down on the table it's nothing at all now obviously we've got extra DS and all this sort of stuff but I don't want to do any of that - all of these are dry I mean I could have done it on this one if I hadn't added the the Milly pop but I did yeah so we're gonna leave those to dry yeah right guys these are dry now and they are really really sturdy yeah absolutely brilliant yeah there's a little bit of flex in them but you will get that anyway but the important thing is that they're tough enough to resist warping yeah and obviously this one is as well but you know that's down to the tape on the back not so much what we added to the sides so next job is to texture our pieces or but before we do I want to show you technique sometimes when they do countryside roads they'll put like tank tracks and horse hooves and all that sort stuff into it and it's done by basically putting a down that you make impressions into now I could have done this at the middle put stage with me spare milliput but I didn't do cuz I wanted to show you aren't you thus the studying it or you know the anti warping now so with that in mind we go what I'm going to do is I'm going to use filler yeah so I get a big blob here on my finger yeah and I'm going to be used this one show you the tracks and all I'm going to do is run the filler up and down yeah and smooth it out see what I'm doing that yeah and once it is smoothed out all right and that's it all pour on next thing I need to do is just smooth it a little so up dip my finger in a bit water I'm just going to run it over and just give it a quick coat of water yeah very thin one this will sort of take any finger prints off it yeah and just smooth out any last details we get it twits like that now all I need to do is just leave it for a couple of minutes for the excess moisture to sort of dry off okay so it goes to like a soft smooth putty yeah and at that point I can come along and I can start adding stuff one thing you can do at this stage no I've got a filter on my finger give me a sec one thing you can start doing at this stage is adding the grit now I'm just going to take little pinches of this yeah so only got tiny little grit bits and I'm just going to sprinkle over the center I'm not worried about getting them anywhere i watch put sort of on these edges here okay I'm doing it very fine because a lot of the texture is going to come from the filler yeah I just want to break it up a little and if I bring it up you can sort of see the moisture in it yeah now all I need to do is wait until it's no longer shiny okay and as soon as that shine goes it's time for me to do the impressions in so let's just give it a couple of minutes right it's almost done now it's just got a little shimmer to it yeah and what we're going to do is dead simple first off yeah I've got a little bit of plastic tubing let me bring it up and I've cut a little wedge out of it and what I'm going to do is that simple come along straight down the middle just stop tapping them in what that's going to do is that's going to give me my horseshoes and there we go four bring it up yeah you see the horseshoe prints yeah as the filler set it will just take those and grip and now the other thing is obviously country tracks a mile I'd watch clip you know a little bit later trucks and that stuff going down so what I've got is I've got a wheel on this thick actually this was been airbrush because it's part of my damla forma Chindits but they don't do for this purpose all I'm going to do is I need to get my wheel straight conniver wonky wheel yeah is I'm just going to drive it down and make some tracks in there yeah I bring that up yeah which are perfect now if you want more detail than this and obviously go with something like Millie put just put a thin layer Millie put down yeah and if you do it that way watch will it it's a lot more ill hold of detail a lot more okay so I'm going to put a couple more tracks in this and then we'll leave it to dry yeah so that's I feel the technique done right next one is I want to show you PVA but I could just give this a coat PVA and just layer it down on it yeah it's certainly sturdy enough it'll take it but I wanted to show you a little trick right I've got my brown base paint there okay I've got some PVA here and what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna add in about a sixth PVA yeah so nowhere near enough to do that but when mixed with the paint I'll give it a mix so when it's mixed with the paint that and the acrylic binder essentially makes my glue now I'm only putting a fine layer of grit down on this I'm not gluing anything heavy so to go all of it with PVA although I can do it's a bit overkill so I'm just going to get this and I'm not particularly worried about the sides it's only the the middle I'm interested in so nice quick and wetting you know what I mean messy I like messy so pull go on yeah I am gone over completely edges I don't need to on this I'm only grating but if I bring it up you can see it's just thick enough that you you know you can just about see the streaks through it and then much like we did with our filler yeah we're just going to get my box and a grit yeah which is sort of shops and coarse sand a couple of rocks thrown in and we're just going to start sprinkling yeah and you'll see though it immediately soaks into the paint yeah the paint will soak it off and grip it if I bring it up yeah do you see how by putting the grit in it sort of sucked about what wet paint around it sort of made that it's very patchy okay and I works perfect you know it'll just sort of blend in when watching lit when we when we give it our paint yeah so drop that on there and that's how to use what sure that's how to sort of reduce the amount of PBA you using by using the paint as the binder okay now what we'll do is we'll leave that one to dry yeah along with that one and what we'll do is we'll do this one next right for our really thin one what I thought I'd do is show you a different technique so we've got the filler we've covered painted PVA this one what we're going to do is use fast-attack now this is a spray adhesive and the good thing about spray it eases it's that they don't constrict they just lay down and they're a DS if which means there's no warping with them so they're great for roads so I'm going to do is very quickly I'm just going to step off to the side give this a quick spray yeah that's how to spray on it now and then all I need to do it's very much like the others yeah grab my very very stuck fine sand sprinkle it along it and make my path all right they are finished sprinkling and if I bring it up yeah lovely now remember it is a contact adhesive so it will only take the bottom layer then with PVA PVA and paint and stuff like that will soak up drawn up through the grit to attachment you know what's on top of it and large pieces with this it's going to literally stick to it which means you get a very low profile okay yeah every once again no warp it because its contacted spray adhesive isn't it right I'll put this down and just let these two dry and then we'll come back with the painting yeah right all dry and straight off yeah obviously no walking across the board now boy if I bring them up yeah there's our tracks that was our filler and grit sprinkled on alit's it's on it it's tucked down quite firmly yeah obviously it needs painting sealing all that sort of stuff but it's good enough to proceed so to speak and if I bring it up you see the sort of trap marks beautiful isn't it right over to our paint and pba yeah and once again now you can see the texture we've got on this one and yeah it's pretty well stuck down obviously there's a few light bits the darker areas are going to be stuck the best obviously because there's more pain PVA mixture there but it's enough for us to get painting yeah and then finally we have our adhesive yeah and yeah of all a lot this is the most likely stuck down to be perfectly honest because it's going straight onto like plastic and you know what plastic slice life or DZ's bare plastic and it is grit so I don't want to rub it too much yeah but we know we're putting more on ill grip well we actually get this painted up so next age paint them off so what's the battle plan dead simple there's two ways are painting first off a standard way which is our watered down house paints you had just standard interior paint yeah and then the other option when you're doing pieces like this it's actually go for colored primer or go for a primer initially and the reason being is house paints contain an acrylic binder it does shrink it can cause warping only it's only got a slight warping effect but if you put it onto a V it can you know or me yeah so in the case of this really thin bit okay I'm going to use watch clip a colored primer and this is just a brown okay feel the benefit of that is whenever you've got a grip which is lightly tacked on because we use spray adhesive on this one yeah using a spray or using an airbrush with house paints means you've not got the the friction from the actual brushing it on which can dislodge it yeah so it's always a better option you know me right so I'm not going to show you putting me brush on them you know basically it's gonna be like I'll get a brush yeah and I'll do like something like that yeah I'll just keep doing it until they're all brown yeah you should be guys I know you know how to paint right we've covered enough let's crack on right that's the more base coated and if I bring them up first one our ones with that detail and straightaway yeah one really solid you know no worries with it whatsoever no warping at all yeah and I wasn't expecting any and then watch clip we've got the horseshoes we've got the tire tracks and ever bring up really really close you had you see we actually got the imprint from the wheel as well yeah easy it's that yeah and then if we pull over that next one yeah simple grit it's worked out rather nice and then finally I've been watch cult path track yeah and once again yeah really solid that primer worked wonders right next job is we've got to get this with all these sort of paint it off now when it comes to painting them off yeah we've got all sorts of colors to consider but you're looking at mainly your Browns yeah and depending on how dry it is depends on how light you want to go it now we've like you want to go now we're already pretty light with this so we're going to highlight it up with probably a cream yeah so if I take a cream on this one yeah I'll throw a bit on my palate yeah and then it's just simple dry brushing so take a brush yeah a little bit on take the excess off on a bit cardboard yeah cardboard is always great for taking the excess off because it literally sucks the moisture out of the painting it's far better for dry brushing with than using tissues and that sort of stuff I found especially terrain yeah and then once you go to that sort stage yeah all you going to do let's just give it a bit of a dry brush now when you dry brush quick tip when you drag it up don't change direction until you're off the piece because as you change direction and come back the other way you actually force the bristles in and you'll end up with a splodge yeah so you just get keep going one way and bring it up there you go and it is as simple as that in the simplest form you know one color one quick go over remember these are got to be flocked so it won't look so bad once they are yeah right now I'm going to do something similar with these yeah just a simple dry brush but I'm going to use slightly lighter colors so I'll crack on with that now for this piece I've done is I've just given it a a bit of a highlight at bit of a dry brush with this brown and then just a very sort of sort of another highlight again yeah with that brown mixed in with a little bit of that beige okay and that sounds come out rather nice yeah once again it does look sort of monotone because at the moment yeah it's just all brown everything isn't it yeah we need to get flop top right those are the next one now right with our final piece yet because we're it's a bit muddy I want to be a bit more subtle with how I do this one okay so rather than just the standard driver so I'm going to do is I'm going to do a little bit of mixing so I've got some Brown there yeah and we'll throw some of that light brown there mix that up a bit yeah so right a little bit more I think yeah I am just mixing on the palette here obviously if you're going to do it premix get your colors yet so you've got a standardized color across the whole range of pieces because you're not just going to be doing one yeah now the same time I'm not going to dry brush this okay the reason being is dry brush creates a very sort of high contrast technique like that okay this is Dan brushing this is over brushing so my brush is damp I'm not using the cardboard yeah and then very gently I am just sweeping along once I've blown off all the little bits off it yeah here we go if I bring that up start see the technique right I need to do a little bit more work on this bring it up a little yeah I think what I'll do is I'll give it a quick smooth over with a bit of water and what that'll do is it'll blend up down a bit right we've gone to that stage yeah it's a bit messy in it right next thing yeah all I got is a little bit of water take off that excess paint actually before a proton you just smear it everywhere yeah and all I'm gonna do is that yeah see what's due happening now this will thin it down and create tones trust me on this and I won't do it right that's what it looks like now let's leave it to dry a right there all dry now sir for bringing it up very quickly we've got our simple light texture looks beautiful in it yeah then we've got our darkest Road yeah and then the one you really wanted to see yeah the wet effect mud yeah beautifully works an absolute treat now the next thing we need to do is get these flop top okay now dead simple PVA now because they're long and thin once again we want to be handling any warping issues okay so we need to fill out PVA down now don't worry about thinning it down too much that the flock won't stick on ya because the fact of the matter is flock one sucks up moisture and so it it really absorbs the pba really well and it D is really well and on top of that yeah it's tiny sawdust you don't need that much groove to get it on you know what I mean yeah if I was if I was gluing down bushes and something like that then I would be a little bit more concerned but for bring this up I mean it's mixed with some of the brown cuz you know palate yeah but that's how that's how much I've mix I've watered this pba down okay all I'm going to do is I'm going to give you PVA and we will do which one should we do first eeny meeny miny we'll do this one because this is probably the best example okay yeah obviously the size I want to cover completely one side yeah this side that the flat side where we untie texture yeah and then I want to sort of bring it down the other edge yeah because I want some flop to stick there yeah couple littler tabs across it yeah so we've got it like that next job I want to highlight across the top so I've got my really dark stuff yeah so straight across the top for the dark stuff yeah little hot spots for me a little bit coming towards the edge so it goes like that yeah then I want my dark no get me dark here and I just want to put a couple of little right this edge yeah just to break it off a bit and just like that I'm then finally I can't dunk it in so I'm just going to sprinkle it Oh need a bit more there see I've come up and have not covered quite that corner so you can do this it's a bit messy but you know we can pull these things off a little bit more like there I think yeah and then there we go yeah and it is as simple as that now all we need to do is continue this so I'm just going to flop the rest of this off and then I'll show you when they're done guys right so the flocks all dry now and if I bring them up yeah a simple path beautiful in it absolutely beautiful yeah and then obviously we've got our Road which is I'd like you know vehicles over in that sort of stuff perhaps a little heavy in the middle I think I might have to scrub that back a bit get the toothbrush on it and just break it off a bit yeah we can do that it's not a problem yeah obviously got about clump foliage and all that sort stuff onto that one as well yeah and I've finally our muddy path now if I bring the muddy path up you'll notice there's quite a contrast between where we've done our muddy work yeah and our actual flock you know it's almost like green brown you know it wouldn't be like that yeah so what I've got over here dead simple is I've got some of my base Brown and all I've done is I've really watered it down in fact I'm going to water it down some more yeah to make it nice and translucent and what this will do is it'll just stain the flock so it looks a bit like mud we did a similar thing on the craters in the battlefield basic in the battlefield yeah about fill basics videos and all I'm going to do is just come along I just put some of this along here so if I bring that up and see what I'm doing when that dries what I'll do is it will stain that so it makes it look a bit like the grass has got mud on it and that sort of stuff so I'm going to quickly do that and I will start putting some clump foliage on while that brown wash dries yeah what we'll do is we'll just put some Club foliage on these now standard principles apply so here's a piece yeah I've got some neat PVA on there once again much like that the rest of this series we've got some dog Tufts and some light Tufts yeah and then I've got a mixture of clump foliage from the folks over at foreground it's just some bits out off one of their trees so yeah that's all it is yeah now but the places applying foliage is quite simple all we're going to do is we're going to grab some foliage some clump foliage or my fingers yeah dip it in the PVA yeah and then just come along and as always you see here where I've lost a little bit of flock off the top of this yeah that's the perfect place to put their clump foliage see yeah it's as simple as that just push it down now obviously this will hold it in place and then when we seal the whole piece at the end yeah we put a ward down PVA on it that'll just hold it all in place now at the same time yeah we've got these lovely little Tufts so let's get some Tufts yeah pull them off now these are self-adhesive which means they'll stick straight down but a little bit PVA never harmed that's it a little yeah and then if you just want to you know drop those in in various spots and they look quite nice yeah so the next job I'll go do is I've just got a load of clump foliage along these yeah and sort of clump them up okay I'll go for the lighter stuff with the light yeah and then as I go darker I'll go for darker stuff so with the really muddy one yet you know I'll just go for the dark pieces on that so guys that's them pretty much dry now obviously I want to weigh a little while longer before I seal them and when I see them I'll be using PVA yeah mixed with sick one part PVA six parts water and just enough to sort of you know - to where - yeah now I'll hold it all together so if I pick them off and bring them off yeah there's our path yeah I really like dusty path and that's worked really well okay I'll see the clump foliage and the flocks and all that sort of it down to you but all you know the techniques we used to put this together yeah the the tape the spray adhesive from the primer yeah is resorted in a piece which no warping even though it's long and thin yeah moving over to this one yeah now this was our more traditional one yeah passive work well I feathered those down kampala jizan it's looking rather nice yeah obviously this is thermally put one and once again no warping whatsoever yeah which was the main thing about this video you know the techniques which don't cause warping and then you know for our really really muddy path yeah and of course they have all of them it's probably my favorite I could do it better if I spent more time on it you know I mean but it really is quite nice yeah and once again yeah this one with dead simple obviously we use the filler for the texturing you know sprinkled on a grid but the real secret here is those lollipop sticks yeah that to make it really sturdy now which is resorted in once again know what we want so ever so there you have a guys yeah loads of different techniques for making mud pass roads pastures tracks all that sort of polari you know or me right let me settle for the long shot you so that's it guys that's everything you need to sort of put together dirt tracks roads paths you've seen all the techniques the materials how combat the warping how a few different adhesives different painting techniques you know and obviously we've done also like the detailing you know the horse who's that the vehicle tracks and also the mudding and feathering on the side just pick out of it what you need to use okay to make your tracks but obviously you can make your your your pass out all the same materials that we've done in the rest of this lesson let's make series okay now uh moving forward it obviously like it sharing all that sort stuff if you've got any questions yeah down in the comments if you've got any suggestions down in the comments and as always guys if you really do like these videos and they do help you with your hobby and you want to support you know just a dad who's trying to you know make his dream job come true and put food on the table at st. the same time then please consider like jumping on patron and doing that one dollar a month pledge and if you don't like the idea of charity consider a subscription twelve dollars for the year 100 hundred tutorials it's not bad is it you know right if you're not into watch full of patron by the way you just want to do a one-off yeah there's a link down below to PayPal and you can just send a one-off as a gift that way yeah it all helps kicking out this studio but the minute I'm trying to get a sort of a rig set up and all that sort of stuff now so I can improve the way I film and do overhead film in and and soundproofing and all that sort of stuff but I can only make it happen with your support guys so genuinely yeah if you like these fits and you look forward to them scissor throw in a dollar the way you know I'm becoming a patron becoming awesome guys if you are into that yeah then check it out there obviously if you're new to the channel then you can subscribe up there if you want to do the paper thing that's down there and if you're looking for more videos to watch yeah well they're there and they're there and I'm feeling like an airhostess coming true sorry and so I will say good night crack on terrain axe Tara

Channel: TheTerrainTutor

Views: 195,466

Keywords: Dirt, Roads, Tracks, Paths, how to make wargaming terrain, making wargames scenery, making wargames terrain, miniature wargaming terrain, wargames scenery, wargames terrain, wargaming scenery, wargaming terrain, wargaming terrain tutorials, making dirt roads, modelling dirt roads, wargames dirt roads, wargaming dirt roads, modeling dirt tracks, making dirt tracks, wargames dirt tracks, wargaming dirt tracks, making terrain paths, modelling paths, wargames paths, wargaming paths

Id: XmyUr-AUCUs

Length: 33min 28sec (2008 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 29 2016