+ inload: Worldbuilding – mean streets +

+ Men at work +

+ I wrote last time about being a little unsure about the size of the paving stones, so I decided to break up the road surface with smaller stones and little cobbles. The small slabs are made exactly in the same way as the large ones, but cut slightly smaller; and fitted in wherever they'd comfortably go. The cobbles (shown in the picture as dark grey patches near the front) are simply tiny balls of ProCreate putty pressed into place and slightly flattened with the eraser end of a pencil. ProCreate's not very sticky at the best of times, but the eraser end works a bit like a flat silicone clay shaper and makes sure they don't stick. +

+ This was quite a time-consuming stage, though not as bad as I'd feared. I think filling the rest of the road and the pavements took about two hours in total; and that included lots of cutting tiny stones. The cobbles proved handy to fill in awkward curved areas, but I was careful to include some larger sections to help them 'read' and ensure they were spread believably across the area. The pavement nearest the camera here has thinner narrow slabs to represent a kerb. It also has a small are of cobbles represented by textured wallpaper (picked up for a song at Hobbycraft) abutting the board edge. This was a nice quick way of texturing the surface, and I was tempted to try it on the building pediments. +

The paving completed.

+ Pediments and grouting +

+ In the end I decided to use a simpler texture, akin to concrete, for the pediments. This keeps the areas anonymous, so that whatever is placed on top gets the limelight. I used a mix of Daler Rowney Acrylic texture paste [+noospheric inload embedded+] and coarse pumice gel by Golden. [+noospheric inload embedded+]. It's scraped fairly thinly, and you could just as easily use textured paint. In fact, I'd recommend you do for large flat areas like this, as I ended up using an entire (and quite expensive) pot :s  +

+ However, the pumice gel did prove ideal for grouting. I accidentally spilled some on the paving, and ended up rubbing it it while trying to remove it. Taking a step back, I realised it worked really well to fill the gaps, so ended up applying it across the road and pavement, as shown to the left. As you can see, it rubs in well, filling the fine gaps. There's a bit remaining on the surface, but I'll give it a going-over with a sanding block to smooth off the rough edges before sealing it.+

+ This angle shows that the pavements are now at the same level as the road, with recessed guttering. +

+ Small stones, cobbling and grout fill awkward ares such as those shown here. The manhole covers now fit in a lot more naturally. This shot shows the drop from the paving to the ground level. +

+ The board as it currently stands (bottom) compared with an earlier stage. +

+ Another shot of the grouting. Any areas missing large slabs (such as directly below the blue manhole cover) will be filled with lichen, grass tufts and so forth, to add a little life to the scene. +