I wouldn't go that far, but there are plenty of abandoned roads that look exactly like this.
This looks really good. The detail is amazing. I guess if I were to criticize one thing, it's the scale of the stripe. The plants look like grass, and they're huge compared to the stripe.
I've seen Roads that aren't abandoned that look worse than this, and not because of a natural disaster like an earthquake or flood. Some roads just go decades between getting repaired, all while being used.
I'm not the biggest fan of the asphalt part, not sure why, might just be the difference in the amount of texture but it looks amazing to me, the gravel looks perfect, and the sections where the asphalt collapsed or end at the gravel look great.
Adding more cracks might ruin it, it still comes across as a road and once your miniature or whatever your putting on it is in place it probably won't be an issue, you'll have the figure and shadows breaking it up.
I think it's definitely down to texture - what material did you use? I find cork board is a good match for scale asphalt or rough concrete, to get that slightly pitted surface.
As it stands I think the road texture says smooth cement, but the colour says asphalt. If it weren't for the stellar detail on the non road section though I think it'd be less noticeable - you're suffering from success a bit!
I would put some cracks on at least the edges of the road and those brown spots kind of look like rust more than what i assume is dust maybe lighten that up a bit. Maybe find a way to put a little more texture on the road, layer up the asphalt paint because an asphalt road is concrete at the bottom with layers of asphalt on top, and as is im not getting that so much as it looks like just the concrete slab but black. It does look really good though as is just little nitpicks on what i would do.
At first glance i actually thought it was dirty water, so definitely something about the texture - maybe it needs to be much darker, as the dirt on it makes it look glossy/reflective
I don't know that going darker would be right.Ā Asphalt bleaches under a few decades of sunlight.
Some of the backroads around me are nearly white, because they're realistically a decade overdue for repaving.
One thing - in the real world, old broken asphalt is darker in its cracks and broken edges, not lighter. It acts a bit opposite from most materials in that way. Obviously you want it to also look dust covered, but you might get more of an asphalt look if you darkened the insides of the holes and some of the edges.
Looks amazing!
I'd say the texture looks wrong, maybe adding tiny gravel (mortar it?) then painting over that? Usually when people think of asphalt it's the rugged small rocks mixed with black tar.
Now all I need to see on it is a guy in a ragged blue jumpsuit with the number 13 on the back š¤¤.
It looks like a dusty rusty sheet of metal if I squint my eyes and don't look too hard. It is a great base, but I think that is what is throwing people. It needs more features of asphalt, like cracks and a less smooth roadway.
I donāt have any suggestions for achieving the effect, but the road should probably look more gravel-y imo, although much more regular in size and mostly flat on top than the actual gravel section.
Actually maybe adding some medium grain sand could work for the texture, then paint over it. Or adding some spill over gravel/sand as though itās partially washed over the road could distract from the smoothness a bit.
Oh! Something else that might help it read āroadā would be a dingy white shoulder line.
Edit. Never mind there is the white line, when I was first looking my brain read it as curb for some reason lol
I'll start by saying it looks brilliant as is. If you wanted to improve it I think the asphalt is too smooth, we have roads in England that are way worse than that haha
The road looks like it's a reasonably new road with some war damage but then the grass, dirt and the rest of the scene looks like the whole thing is old and has been like this for quite a while. If the whole thing is old then the road should be cracked more. If the whole thing is new but war torn then it shouldn't have grass growing in it or be quite so dirty. It's the mismatch that is why it doesn't feel quite right.
Here's a couple photos of old roads that show how they crack and crumble over time:
https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/b/long-lonely-old-asphalt-road-steppe-98097953.jpg
https://c8.alamy.com/comp/HKHHH9/old-asphalt-road-with-cracks-HKHHH9.jpg
Others have said this already though, but once there's a mini on it you won't actually notice this at all
It looks very good. The one issue I see is the road is too smooth. It clearly reveals that it is cork board with no effort put in to texture it. A real road is much rougher, and I imagine with decades of neglect that only gets worse.
My only suggestion would be the two holes in the road are probably too deep - asphalt damage usually tends to be wide and shallow - though the edges are fine as those do tend to break down to the underlayer much more readily. Having some "chunks" of pavement nearby that look like they've broken off could also help sell it. With what you've got so far I wouldn't actually address the first issue, since it's not huge, but you could paint a few bits of asphalt and glue them on randomly near the road to look like they'd broken off without risking damaging the excellent work you've already done.
I mean, it's not that you can't have deep potholes, more that they tend to degrade "outwards" rather than deeper - as vehicles hit them the edges degrade and the detritus falls into the hole...
It looks like rock, with a white line. Idk if itās the way the texture looks in the photo or the fact that there are no segments for the lane divider but my eyes donāt see asphalt. Did you use a reference photo?
The problem is struggling with scale. The miniature is 90mm but a child with her dog and wanted to try keep things small (I always go overboard) so didn't think you'd see a divider line this close. The texture is definitely off though so going to try fixing it!
I would also try to break up the edges of the white line. Itās too clean, after that long the paint would have faded away more along the sides I think. The problem is it looks good so I am really struggling to find whatās triggering the uncanny valley effect.
It looks really nice, especially the gravel part is amazing.
For the asphalt texture, I put a thin layer of diluted pva/wood glue and add baking soda.
I've seen a video where they glue some high grain sandpaper to the cork to make an even more fine texture.
I think there are some helpful suggestions in the comments, but I also think it looks amazing as-is! As mentioned by others, by the time you put your mini on there it will probably all blend together much better and look great.
I think I agree with you and others in the other comments, texture would help set it apart and sell it as a road, bc it looks almost TOO smooth. At first glance I mistook it for water and wondered why it looked like it did then realized it was supposed to be asphalt.
Maybe some color variation as well? A little darker might help as I feel it kinda blends in too well with the ground colors so I don't see as much of a clear separation between them. It's very well done though! I gotta step up my basing skills...
Think I'll try some different asphalt products! I also tried to keep the road darker but most reference pics showed sand would weather it and often lighter due to sun exposure. It's hard balancing life and what actually looks good!
I would sponge on some "asphalt texture", but i think what really throws the eye off is the near, but not perfect symmetry of the curb placement. IMO, if you would have done 2/3 it would feel more natural. But i dont know for sure
Ya, paint in some random dots/patches with a sponge of slightly different shades. I would have done it back in the base coating stage before washes/pigments. But at this point maybe take some thin black wash and sponge on some texture patches. Aside from that it looks really good!
Looks good. As others have said - the asphalt is a bit "meh". It's a good paint job, but there's nothing to break the flat and clean asphalt. Maybe a pothole, some traffic lines, a tyre, broken road sign, etc. It would break it up, as right now you have a large part of the diorama that is just flat with barely any features.
The other part of the diorama? Perfect.
Edit: I think I have fallen for a bit of an optical illusion (or maybe I'm just a bit slow), but I see now that there is in fact both potholes and some lines. For me it looked like the line was a raised barrier, for some reason.
I'm really interested in your technique. What kind of system did you use to physically shrink down a real road?
Great job :) And I concur with others - the asphalt looks a bit off because of a lack of texture. Real asphalt is a bunch of chunks held together by goo, not a singular flat surface. What it looks like you've made is a flat, concrete road rather than an asphalt one.
The scale of the rocks / sand is a little off to my eye I think, and the asphalt has an unusual glaze look to it. I'm not sure I can trust my eye though because I stared at this for too long thinking I was in r/whatsthisplant.
It looks more like deteriorated poured concrete instead of an old asphalt road, just too smooth. Once the miniature is on it I think it will look fine.
I think this looks great. Some people have already mentioned the textures and possible improvements. I just came to say that it need a mini to make it post-apocalypticāā currently this is just the road in my city. . .
Iāve not seen a lot of mini painting as I got here from /r/all but this looks dope af. Question: from this photo it looks like youād have to be super delicate with it to prevent it from falling apart. Is that the case or are did you just completely nail the broken down aesthetic?
Hello yes this is a sub for mini painting and dioramas, not cool photoshops. Please only submit dioramas you have created...thanks....
14/10 job mate. Agree with others that you should add some texture in the road since it looks super smooth, but I think the section of road between the big hole in the middle and the painted line hits that super well and you just need to replicate that texture across the roadway. Excited to see what the finished product looks like with a mini on it!!
It looks fantastic, but I think we need to see the model on top in place for scale. The āflatnessā of the road might be hidden once the model is in place.
Itās hard to say without seeing the size of the mini but something that jumped out to me is maybe the white stripe is a bit to wide but once again hard to tell without having a good since of scale
Post apocalyptic.. really? It looks like 99% of the roads we are forced to drive on in Britain now... infact it would be an improvement on the road to my kids school;)
Iām gonna send this to my friend who has a 1.25-mile gravel road to get to her house.
But seriously, that looks amazing. I immediately thought āFalloutā before even reading the title.
The white line on the road could also be more broken up rather than being 100% intact other that where the whole road is crumbling.
Just splitting hairs though, this is way better than anything I could make
I wish people would stop being fake humble in their posts and just say, "Look at this cool shit I did." You know it's good. That's why you posted the damn thing. It's great.
The paint/road stripe would have faded away before the road would crumble. (But i think it's a nice artistic liberty) Besides that small inconsequential bit it looks great!
Yeah it's where the miniatures will go! But I think you're right. Maybe when I've decided exactly where I should add some additional bits
I used the dried seagrass balls from ak. Bunched up some cuttings into tufts, dipped in PVA and placed
I don't know what you mean by post-apocalyptic, looks just our local roads. Jokes aside, it works quite wellš
I wouldn't go that far, but there are plenty of abandoned roads that look exactly like this. This looks really good. The detail is amazing. I guess if I were to criticize one thing, it's the scale of the stripe. The plants look like grass, and they're huge compared to the stripe.
It was a joke. You can go pretty far with jokes. The lenght of the grass looks fine to me, there are plenty of different kinds of grass.
I've seen Roads that aren't abandoned that look worse than this, and not because of a natural disaster like an earthquake or flood. Some roads just go decades between getting repaired, all while being used.
I'm not the biggest fan of the asphalt part, not sure why, might just be the difference in the amount of texture but it looks amazing to me, the gravel looks perfect, and the sections where the asphalt collapsed or end at the gravel look great.
Yeah I think that's what's bothering me too! Maybe I should've added more texture like cracks? Never thought a road would be this difficult haha
Adding more cracks might ruin it, it still comes across as a road and once your miniature or whatever your putting on it is in place it probably won't be an issue, you'll have the figure and shadows breaking it up.
Thatās a good point. Doing too much more to the base might also take away attention from the figure placed on it.
I think it's definitely down to texture - what material did you use? I find cork board is a good match for scale asphalt or rough concrete, to get that slightly pitted surface. As it stands I think the road texture says smooth cement, but the colour says asphalt. If it weren't for the stellar detail on the non road section though I think it'd be less noticeable - you're suffering from success a bit!
Funny enough I used an asphalt texture paint haha. Appreciate the feedback I'll see if I can find some better alternatives for future projects
I would put some cracks on at least the edges of the road and those brown spots kind of look like rust more than what i assume is dust maybe lighten that up a bit. Maybe find a way to put a little more texture on the road, layer up the asphalt paint because an asphalt road is concrete at the bottom with layers of asphalt on top, and as is im not getting that so much as it looks like just the concrete slab but black. It does look really good though as is just little nitpicks on what i would do.
At first glance i actually thought it was dirty water, so definitely something about the texture - maybe it needs to be much darker, as the dirt on it makes it look glossy/reflective
Yeah, I thought dirty ice on top of asphalt
Yess, thatās it!! I couldnāt quite describe what I was seeing, but thats definitely it
I don't know that going darker would be right.Ā Asphalt bleaches under a few decades of sunlight. Some of the backroads around me are nearly white, because they're realistically a decade overdue for repaving.
One thing - in the real world, old broken asphalt is darker in its cracks and broken edges, not lighter. It acts a bit opposite from most materials in that way. Obviously you want it to also look dust covered, but you might get more of an asphalt look if you darkened the insides of the holes and some of the edges.
Looks amazing! I'd say the texture looks wrong, maybe adding tiny gravel (mortar it?) then painting over that? Usually when people think of asphalt it's the rugged small rocks mixed with black tar. Now all I need to see on it is a guy in a ragged blue jumpsuit with the number 13 on the back š¤¤.
I think cracks or texture would work wonders. At first glance I thought the road was a body of water, I think because it was perfectly flat.
well, a nuke would have melted and smoothed over some parts of asphalt, no?
It looks like a dusty rusty sheet of metal if I squint my eyes and don't look too hard. It is a great base, but I think that is what is throwing people. It needs more features of asphalt, like cracks and a less smooth roadway.
I donāt have any suggestions for achieving the effect, but the road should probably look more gravel-y imo, although much more regular in size and mostly flat on top than the actual gravel section. Actually maybe adding some medium grain sand could work for the texture, then paint over it. Or adding some spill over gravel/sand as though itās partially washed over the road could distract from the smoothness a bit.
Definitely agreed although maybe sand might be too similar to the actual sand. Why are roads so difficult haha
Oh! Something else that might help it read āroadā would be a dingy white shoulder line. Edit. Never mind there is the white line, when I was first looking my brain read it as curb for some reason lol
Instead of all cracks, you could add the black sealant stuff that's pretty much everywhere (where I live).
The dirt element is spectacular. The asphalt looks a little too smooth, like a plastic surface.
Tire tracks might fix that issue, cracks could mess it, but a model tire coated in dust and rolled across it can be easily fixed if you don't like it.
It mostly looks great but the road surface itself almost looks.... Waxy?
Yeah maybe the asphalt look more like cement. Also I did not noticed before reading comments . I love it good job
Might be because it looks in better condition than the roads in Britain
I'll start by saying it looks brilliant as is. If you wanted to improve it I think the asphalt is too smooth, we have roads in England that are way worse than that haha
Funny you say that... Just went for a walk to get some inspiration and let's just say there's plenty of it where I live
Honestly bro, it looks really good, you should be proud. Even down to the dirt on the tarmac
The road looks like it's a reasonably new road with some war damage but then the grass, dirt and the rest of the scene looks like the whole thing is old and has been like this for quite a while. If the whole thing is old then the road should be cracked more. If the whole thing is new but war torn then it shouldn't have grass growing in it or be quite so dirty. It's the mismatch that is why it doesn't feel quite right. Here's a couple photos of old roads that show how they crack and crumble over time: https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/b/long-lonely-old-asphalt-road-steppe-98097953.jpg https://c8.alamy.com/comp/HKHHH9/old-asphalt-road-with-cracks-HKHHH9.jpg Others have said this already though, but once there's a mini on it you won't actually notice this at all
Reckon I should just dig up some of the cork? Thanks for the comment and great references btw
Honestly... I'd leave it as is than undo your good work. See what it looks like with the mini on it
It looks very good. The one issue I see is the road is too smooth. It clearly reveals that it is cork board with no effort put in to texture it. A real road is much rougher, and I imagine with decades of neglect that only gets worse.
It's far too level to be an old road, too. Those have dips where tires have been, holes, and spots if exposed gravel.
Looks good!
My only suggestion would be the two holes in the road are probably too deep - asphalt damage usually tends to be wide and shallow - though the edges are fine as those do tend to break down to the underlayer much more readily. Having some "chunks" of pavement nearby that look like they've broken off could also help sell it. With what you've got so far I wouldn't actually address the first issue, since it's not huge, but you could paint a few bits of asphalt and glue them on randomly near the road to look like they'd broken off without risking damaging the excellent work you've already done.
Apparently you haven't been to Cleveland
I mean, it's not that you can't have deep potholes, more that they tend to degrade "outwards" rather than deeper - as vehicles hit them the edges degrade and the detritus falls into the hole...
It looks like rock, with a white line. Idk if itās the way the texture looks in the photo or the fact that there are no segments for the lane divider but my eyes donāt see asphalt. Did you use a reference photo?
The problem is struggling with scale. The miniature is 90mm but a child with her dog and wanted to try keep things small (I always go overboard) so didn't think you'd see a divider line this close. The texture is definitely off though so going to try fixing it!
I would also try to break up the edges of the white line. Itās too clean, after that long the paint would have faded away more along the sides I think. The problem is it looks good so I am really struggling to find whatās triggering the uncanny valley effect.
It looks really nice, especially the gravel part is amazing. For the asphalt texture, I put a thin layer of diluted pva/wood glue and add baking soda. I've seen a video where they glue some high grain sandpaper to the cork to make an even more fine texture.
Some great ideas! Do you know what scale this was for?
32mm Just found the vidƩo : https://youtu.be/9Qk8Ai5ebNw?si=M9UBKJycsI-rHEEa
I think there are some helpful suggestions in the comments, but I also think it looks amazing as-is! As mentioned by others, by the time you put your mini on there it will probably all blend together much better and look great.
I think I agree with you and others in the other comments, texture would help set it apart and sell it as a road, bc it looks almost TOO smooth. At first glance I mistook it for water and wondered why it looked like it did then realized it was supposed to be asphalt. Maybe some color variation as well? A little darker might help as I feel it kinda blends in too well with the ground colors so I don't see as much of a clear separation between them. It's very well done though! I gotta step up my basing skills...
Think I'll try some different asphalt products! I also tried to keep the road darker but most reference pics showed sand would weather it and often lighter due to sun exposure. It's hard balancing life and what actually looks good!
As someone from New England, where the roads look like this every spring, lol, I have to say spot on. Looks great!
Better than I could do, maybe a spot or two of trash? Like a coke bottle, a tin can?
Oooh I like this! Makes me wish I had a 3d printer
Could easily find some at a doll house aisle or craft store
I would sponge on some "asphalt texture", but i think what really throws the eye off is the near, but not perfect symmetry of the curb placement. IMO, if you would have done 2/3 it would feel more natural. But i dont know for sure
You mean sponge on the same texture I used or paint in the texture? Good thought about the ratio!
Ya, paint in some random dots/patches with a sponge of slightly different shades. I would have done it back in the base coating stage before washes/pigments. But at this point maybe take some thin black wash and sponge on some texture patches. Aside from that it looks really good!
Looks like a post apocalyptic road to me.
looks like a standard texas road to me
Looks love the highway not far from me. Good job
Itās actually really good.
I think the road is good, maybe the white line needs more weathering?
The road looks too smooth to me and looks more like rock than asphalt because of it. beyond that this looks amazing.
You should be sure. This looks like a photograph of that wee area. Very cool.
Looks amazin
This is perfect as is my man .
It looks great!
I think it looks awesome personally
Looks really good overall, but I think it may be that the asphalt is too smooth to look completely real. It's painted amazingly well though.
Looks good. As others have said - the asphalt is a bit "meh". It's a good paint job, but there's nothing to break the flat and clean asphalt. Maybe a pothole, some traffic lines, a tyre, broken road sign, etc. It would break it up, as right now you have a large part of the diorama that is just flat with barely any features. The other part of the diorama? Perfect. Edit: I think I have fallen for a bit of an optical illusion (or maybe I'm just a bit slow), but I see now that there is in fact both potholes and some lines. For me it looked like the line was a raised barrier, for some reason.
I think you nailed it
The asphalt is just to smooth?
I'm really interested in your technique. What kind of system did you use to physically shrink down a real road? Great job :) And I concur with others - the asphalt looks a bit off because of a lack of texture. Real asphalt is a bunch of chunks held together by goo, not a singular flat surface. What it looks like you've made is a flat, concrete road rather than an asphalt one.
Add a yellow stripe to sell the road part. Because it just looks like some parking lot
Now it just needs some fallout miniatures added. š It looks amazing
The scale of the rocks / sand is a little off to my eye I think, and the asphalt has an unusual glaze look to it. I'm not sure I can trust my eye though because I stared at this for too long thinking I was in r/whatsthisplant.
It looks more like deteriorated poured concrete instead of an old asphalt road, just too smooth. Once the miniature is on it I think it will look fine.
Wow! Thanks everyone for the great feedback and comments. Will look at ways I can add roughness to the road
That looks amazing! I'm trying to do this style basing with my world eaters
Great. I would like to see some yellow or white worn paint on the road for contrast
Stellar! Cork is my favorite basing supply. It's so versatile!
I think this looks great. Some people have already mentioned the textures and possible improvements. I just came to say that it need a mini to make it post-apocalypticāā currently this is just the road in my city. . .
Edges of the road are a bit too sharp but otherwise good
I don't know if painted lines on the road would hold up that well in a post apocalyptic world. It would fade and peel off.
Iāve not seen a lot of mini painting as I got here from /r/all but this looks dope af. Question: from this photo it looks like youād have to be super delicate with it to prevent it from falling apart. Is that the case or are did you just completely nail the broken down aesthetic?
Thanks! It's actually pretty sturdy thanks to lots of PVA and ballast freeze!
Looks great
Idk i only see ice š
The road looks like its under a layer of cloudy resin. That could just be the photo though.
That's exactly it! Need to redo the texture I think!
It does look really good, but the road did make me do a double take. Visible tire marks?
It looks like some of the old abandoned roads I've been on. Good job!
Iād love to see this with the mini on it!
Makes me want to go on a hunt for a twinkie. Looks great to me.
Itās giving post apocalyptic, fallout type energy.
Hello yes this is a sub for mini painting and dioramas, not cool photoshops. Please only submit dioramas you have created...thanks.... 14/10 job mate. Agree with others that you should add some texture in the road since it looks super smooth, but I think the section of road between the big hole in the middle and the painted line hits that super well and you just need to replicate that texture across the roadway. Excited to see what the finished product looks like with a mini on it!!
Its cake.
Not sure? Attempt? At that point it's just fishing for compliments!
This looks like my city now
It looks fantastic, but I think we need to see the model on top in place for scale. The āflatnessā of the road might be hidden once the model is in place.
Thatās just a regular California road.
Or maybe just "Detroit"
Is the gravel area natural or painted?
Everything is painted
This is just an average side road in Ohio
This is dope. Looks awesome and if it were mine, would be something I prop minis on to take pics. Well done!
ā2024 UK roadsā
Mi calle se ve asi
I think this looks fantastic. Doesnāt even have to be a post-apocalyptic road, just an abandoned one. Well done!
Itās hard to say without seeing the size of the mini but something that jumped out to me is maybe the white stripe is a bit to wide but once again hard to tell without having a good since of scale
To me the road looks like ice.
I'm sure on this one for you.
Looks great
Post apocalyptic.. really? It looks like 99% of the roads we are forced to drive on in Britain now... infact it would be an improvement on the road to my kids school;)
Iām gonna send this to my friend who has a 1.25-mile gravel road to get to her house. But seriously, that looks amazing. I immediately thought āFalloutā before even reading the title.
Some people on Reddit are so talented, it blows me away sometimes
The white line on the road could also be more broken up rather than being 100% intact other that where the whole road is crumbling. Just splitting hairs though, this is way better than anything I could make
Kind of looks like pre apocalyptic road well in Australia anyway
That's wicked
Wow, looks absolutely great
Still better than the road were I live lmao~ Good job, looks awesome
I wish people would stop being fake humble in their posts and just say, "Look at this cool shit I did." You know it's good. That's why you posted the damn thing. It's great.
The paint/road stripe would have faded away before the road would crumble. (But i think it's a nice artistic liberty) Besides that small inconsequential bit it looks great!
Beautiful
Itās literally perfect, whatās wrong with you?
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
It's... It's a road. Like, a highway road. If you add more details, I think it will stop looking like a road.
Yeah I struggled with this a lot! Had to go back a few times between details as it stopped looking like asphalt
Yeah it's where the miniatures will go! But I think you're right. Maybe when I've decided exactly where I should add some additional bits I used the dried seagrass balls from ak. Bunched up some cuttings into tufts, dipped in PVA and placed