My friends, so I’m walking down this street and
suddenly I’m thinking: I want to have this in my collection! I know, weird, but inspiration can
come from every direction when you’re a modeler. When you think about it, a cobblestone road
or a walkway is a playground full of textures, shapes, colors, and weathering possibilities, not to mention various details we can
add… so let’s build one from styrofoam! As usual, I started by making the basic
building blocks on my Proxxon heat cutter. Again, before I started scribing, I
made a sketch with various cobblestones… this makes everything much easier
so it’s ALWAYS good to make one. Most of the scribing techniques are gonna be a
review of what I’ve shown you two weeks ago on the French house, just a lot easier because…
well, it’s just a flat plane, not a house. But this is why I find sketching the overall
layout so important - of course, it would be easy to have one type of cobblestone and apply
it over the whole area in the same pattern, but why let the opportunity slip when we can
be more creative, right? Also, putting the idea down on paper often helps me to form a plan about
the overall workflow. So, in this example, I knew it would be easier to start with the curb, and
once that was done, I could make a squared grid, which I would then turn into individual cobbles,
or tiles, laid down in this criss-cross pattern. This unknown styrofoam which I found in my shed
is a bit hairy and heat-proof, so the only way to enlarge the gaps is by using something like
a toothpick. To get rid of the hairy texture and instead make the surface more uneven, stippling
with an old, completely destroyed brush is the way to go. In fact, I destroyed this brush when I was
texturing the roof tiles on the house… There are good foams and then there are next-level foams
such as this one. Check out how smooth it is, the surface is almost glossy. Once the lockdown in
my country is over, I’m gonna hunt for more! Also, I’m gonna include a manhole cover, and here I made
the circle first, carved the cobblestones around it, and only then scribed the road. There’s also
gonna be a drain, which I quickly designed and 3D printed. There’s a long story behind the manhole
cover, but basically, in my haste, I modeled an Indian one without realizing it, and after it
was brought up on my Patreon, I made another one, this time more accurate for a French diorama.
The 3D files are available on my Patreon, including the Indian cover
in case you’re interested… so after everything was done I could glue it to
the base using PVA, and it was ready for painting! Now, the base coating was carried out with this
dark grey color with a slight touch of brown. It’s called Graphite from the AK 3rd generation line
but normally I wouldn’t care because there are no exact paint callouts when you’re working on
something like a cobblestone road. I just really like it for anything stone or concrete-related.
I’m totally obsessed with adding variation to everything that’s scribed into styrofoam, so I
painted every stone in a slightly different shade. Most of the time it doesn’t make a huge
difference in the end, but it makes me sleep better at night… and that’s a hard fact….
I just… I wouldn’t feel good about it otherwise. Obviously, it’s not necessary to go all out
and paint every piece in a different tone, but some variation is obviously good, for
example, the curb is a feature that always stands out in real life. Usually, you’d see
specific paints mentioned in the bottom left corner of my videos, but this time… again,
it’s not very important because there’s just way too much variation in real
life and anything can be used. Let’s now add the dirt between them. Fine sand is
an excellent material for this because it’s easy to control and it has a nice texture.
Compared to, let’s say, Plaster of Paris, or one of the pre-made wall repair plasters
that are smeared across the surface and wiped, here I can deposit the sand very precisely, adding
or removing it wherever needed. It can be fixed with… you know, anything that’s liquid and it
sticks things together. I like Ballast Freeze from VMS because it doesn’t attack the foam or the
paint, and it comes in a nice dropper bottle… but otherwise, diluted PVA or Gravel and Sand fixer
will also do. It dries in a few minutes and the resulting texture looks pretty nice already,
but it’s only a base for our weathering efforts. The first step is not exactly a weathering
technique, but it sort of ties everything together and gives the surface a more authentic
finish. Light Mud from Vallejo is a very nice color for anything dust or dry earth-related,
so I like using it for all kinds of effects. With the basic paints and textures finished,
I wanted to add more texture… and what’s the easiest way to achieve that? By using
random clutter from outside… be it sand, again, although this time the grains are larger,
real dirt, that’s a legit modeling consumable, although I wouldn’t recommend consuming it in the
most literal way, and static grass… or in my case, dried seagrass or as I like to call it, sea
ball because it comes in balls. Once again, I fixed with a few drops of Ballast Freeze,
and whenever I’m working with small amounts of debris and want to speed up the process,
I flood the surface with tap water and then soak it up with a large brush. This will spread
the glue evenly and speed up the drying process. To integrate it smoothly into the groundwork,
I used an airbrush. It’s my own mixture of earth-toned and grey Tamiya acrylics diluted
with Leveling Thinner, I labeled the bottle “Grey Dust”… but again, this totally depends on
the setting and what you’re going for. Airbrushing is mostly associated with very smooth, feathered
color transitions which don’t always look natural if we’re recreating dust or dirt, so a few
more acrylic washes from Vallejo paints will give the surface a more believable finish, and I
didn’t just apply them as a wash into crevices, but also on top of a few cobblestones, making
them look more weathered. This would already work pretty well for a very dry, dusty setting,
but my goal is something with more contrast. So it’s gonna be the same technique, just the
colors are gonna be darker. From what I see most of the time, the earth between cobblestones
remains pretty dark, so this step kinda makes sense both artistically and realistically. It’s
again best to apply it in several layers and build up the opacity in uneven patterns. A very fun way
of adding visual texture is chipping the stones. This can occur naturally, just like I’ve
shown in the reference footage at the beginning of the video, or in this case,
I’m using it to suggest the movement of tanks across the road. Their metal tracks and
heavy weight would definitely leave some scars… and it’s a small visual detail that can make
the road look more interesting, so why not? One of the most satisfying techniques for me
is adding moss or any other small vegetation, which I also noticed during my walk.
Crushed foam from Woodland Scenics is an awesome material for this, and in this case,
I could just sprinkle it over the blobs of PVA glue and gently push it down so it would stay
there. A quick blow from an airbrush, and yeah, it’s gonna stay there. Painting is actually the
best part. Here I developed my own approach, not sure if it’s the correct way or not, but
I like to start with Khaki Grey from Vallejo and I apply it as this very heavy wash. It
can totally spill on the surrounding stones, in fact, it’s gonna make the result more
subtle… and while the paint is still wet, I add another wash with Golden Olive. This paint
is very vivid but it’ll turn darker as it dries, and because both paints are now wet,
they’ll nicely blend together. Finally, a very small amount of Black Brown here and there
will act as an outline, but it can also tone the effect down if needed. Once all three paints
are dry I sometimes go over the plant life again with the green paint just to make it more vivid,
but that’s pretty much it, it’s so simple and fun. The metal details are also very easy. Check
out how they can be finished in only four steps. A base coat using the
same Graphite color as before, now a heavy enamel rust wash… The dark rust color
is the most important, the brighter one is just to add some subtle variation…. and once they’re
dry I flooded the surface with Light Mud again. It’s acrylic over enamel so there’s a
little bit of surface tension and the paint needs to be worked into the surface,
but it just needs more blending than usual. And finally, quick polishing with graphite. This
time actual graphite, like a pencil, not the paint called Graphite… And yeah, that’s it… the Light
Mud color gives these details an authentic finish, but it also visually ties them to the dusty
road. The final touch is picking out some of the loose stones with different paints, but apart
from that… the road is pretty much finished. It’s such a fun way to spend an evening at the
workbench, seriously, everything goes by really fast and most of the time was spent waiting
for paints to dry… and it’s yet another use for styrofoam in our dioramas. A cobblestone
road might actually be the easiest structure, much easier and quicker than a simple brick wall,
and it provides so much contrast with regular, dirty groundwork. So I guess that’s gonna be it
my friends, short, straight to the point, and I hope you enjoyed it this way. Next week will be a
full-blown video about making this whole diorama, but I don’t want to give away too much so these
shots will have to do for now. So thank you for watching, I hope we’ll see again in a week, and
thank you to my Patrons who make this weekly show possible. If you want to see the next video right
now, it’s already there on my Patreon page. And I also have a lot of updates and behind the scenes
there - you can for example watch me working on every project in real-time, I’m updating almost
every day. We can also get in touch through DMs and comments, I also have these nice studio
photos which you can download in full resolution, 3D models as I already mentioned, including these
sewer covers, roof tiles, and various accessories for armor models, and last but not least real-life
references and inspiration for dioramas, sceneries or manmade structures. A lot of stuff, I know.
Anyway, until the next one stay safe, stay awesome, keep building models,
don’t just collect them, and remember, the next video is gonna be a diorama and it’s
gonna be huuuge, so don’t miss it! Cheers!
