Dock tarmac surfaces

I filled the edges of the cobbled worn sections with Deluxe Materials plastic putty:

Plastic putty edges

I did a couple of coats sanding in between. I put a coat of artist’s acrylic varnish over the top.

I tried a couple of surfaces for my dock based on Gordon Gravett’s Grasslands book which also includes roads.

Basically, you paint a gloss enamel and sprinkle either ash or chinchilla dust on the surface. I had already bought some silicon carbide grit in 80, 220 and 400.

I didn’t want to use enamels as I had bought a couple of Lifecolour acrylic tarmac colours – middle eastern and European. To stop it drying too quickly I bought some slow drying medium to allow longer for the grit to settle.

Ingredients

First I tried the chinchilla dust:

Chincilla dust

It’s a bit gritty for my liking so I tried the silicon carbide 220 grit:

Silicon Carbide 220 grit

I ran out of the 100g bag so I tried the 400 grit – really a fine powder:

Silicon Carbide 400 grit

I’m waiting for them to dry and will hoover them off (whilst trying to keep the spare powder – easier said than done I guess.