The Salute road
In previous years, I’ve made terrain boards which have had the roads built-in, part of the features of the board. When I revamped my old boards, I decided not to do it that way, but instead I’d have ready made roads to lie on top of the terrain. This system has many advantages, as the player can change the road layout for every battle. I was considering two manufacturers, Early War Miniatures and Total Battle Miniatures. As luck would have it, my boss Jasper had a complete unpainted set of roads from Total Battle Miniatures which I could use. Only one problem, Jasper’s needed painting! Would we have time before the show? Okay spoiler alert, yes, we did finish them off otherwise this would be a very short blog!
The TBM roads were just what I needed for the demo - looking like modern asphalt. They were nice and thick too, about 6mm at greatest height and of convex shape with drainage ditch either side.
Firstly, the road sections were cleaned with washing up liquid to remove any grease used in the manufacture. We chose Windsor and Newton Galeria paints. The first undercoat was Payne’s Grey with some Van Dyke Brown and Mars Black, as the grey was slightly bluish in colour.
In hindsight, we should have painted both sides of the roads as the unpainted undersides remain slightly sticky, picking up bits of flock later on. There was no issue with the paint adhering - I’ve painted terrain mats from TBM which have kept their shape and colour very well for years. The highlights were achieved by slowly adding Pale Umber and Titanium Buff to the original basecoat.
Further highlights were added with more umber and buff applied to the base mixture. A total of four progressively lighter highlights were added.
Next the sides of the track were painted with Burnt Umber. A highlight was added using a small amount of Pale Umber and Titanium Buff.
Once the roads had dried overnight, a flock was finally added with wood glue. The finished roads look good and will look excellent on the table at Salute. Thanks Jasper!
