Masonite Sidewalks

Nice.  Good realistic scenery and all, not  a lot of compression.  I love your mountain backdrop - some part of the country I model.  You have one of the better multi-later wedding-cake arrangements I've seen.  Good stuff.

Masonite does make for good sidewalks, no doubt. We all have our preferred ways, though, and mine is to use basswood and fill its grain with spackling, then sand and paint.  No real reason to prefer it, just habit at this point: its easy to use and modify if need be and looks realistic when done.

I use 1/8 thick corrugated cardboard with masking tape on the edges which simulates curbing. Concrete slab lines are drawn with a pencil after painting.

Lance,

I use 1/8 to 3/16 masonite to make sidewalks.

the buildings are on top of it obviously, so I find out the best way is make individual building bases including the sidewalks, then you put it together.

Second picture show the individual sidewalk add to the buildings.

my 2 cents.

I used the same technique except I made the sidewalks out of 1/2 masonite and built up the road with 1/4 and 1/8 inch to give me a 6 scale inch curb. Looks pretty dang good. My whole town is on 2 foot by 3 to 4 foot panels so I can remove them and work on them. All the wiring is taped to the bottom of the masonite and ran to one central location. Works really well

I use a sheet of 1/8" MDF as base under all of the buildings. The base extends the width of the sidewalk and is scribed. The sidewalks are removed from all the buildings and the MDF altered to accepts the various mounts used. MTH buildings have round lugs so holes are drilled in the MDF. Walthers had tabs so slots are cut into the MDF. Lionel buildings just sit on top. Lionel provides a brick strip to replace the space the sidewalk leaves when removed. Shown below from left to right MTH, Walthers, Lionel.

BTW some use MDF and Masonite interchangeably. MDF is much softer, doesn't chip, and easier to work. Tempered Masonite is much harder and easily chipped.

Pete

Lance

I copied another members quick method.

I bought half dozen of the cheap yard sticks at home depot. Took the sidewalks off my 8 buildings. Painted everything a gray and put the sidewalks back on the buildings.

I used Masonite for the ground cover for the complete city area and then cut the roads out from another piece of 1/8 inch Masonite.

I still need to scribe the sidewalk to match the scribe on the buildings. And I may experiment with smearing a darker gray on the sidewalk to make them appear worn. Not sure of that yet.

Good luck with your project.

Larry

that's what I used for my landing strip. Masonite painted gray

with auto parts store pin stripeing and yellow paint for heliport.

did the same with my roadway overpass.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_E6TRv8wl5c

Check out Norm's sidewalks HERE

Lance

No the sticks are almost exactly the same width and thickness as the building sidewalks.

They do not go under the buildings. I use the sticks as filler sidewalk between buildings that are spaced a distance apart from each other.

On some of the MTH buildings the side walks are much thicker than Lionel ones. I remove the MTH side walks. They are replaced with the sticks for a even appearance.

Larry

I have several feet of sideways and similar things, as well as supports under building edges, that are yardsticks.  I generally buy a dozen at a time at Lowes or Home Depot when they are on sale.  Very good wood to work with.

Hey Lance,   How did you do the road surface in the first photo with the black tar over the cracks in the roadway ?   It looks very good particularly since the road service looks grainy...  Is that multiple coats of spray paint of different colors ? 

Thanks Lance, I realize my error...  saw your name in the first line of the post, another senior moment....

So AG how did you do that road surface with the tar ?  

First i cut all the bases, tabs, whatever off all my buildings. Then i then i take some 1/8" Masonite that i have primed with some cheap WallyMart grey primer and then dry brushed with PolyScale aged concrete and put enough down on the street to serve as a base for the buildings, leaving about 2" (8 scale feet) of sidewalk showing. Pretty simple.

jackson

Let me provide you with another suggestion that is cheaper and easier than masonite.  I went to a hobby store that had art supplies and purchased a sheet of foam board which is about 1/4-3/8" thick approx.  I cut it to fit the building with an exacto knife, leaving a strip wherever a front yard and sidewalk was part of the lot for the structure.  This way the entire structure was on top of the cut foam board and the sidewalk was in the front, along with any front yard from the walk to the building.  I traced the outline of the building and allowed for the width of the sidewalk.  I spray painted along the edge where the sidewalk would be in a gray paint after I sprayed some green from where the sidewalk ended to the building (It doesn't have to be exact there since the building will cover up the green).  Just make sure you mask off the green when you paint your sidewalk strip.  After it dries, get a small point ink marking pen to make the uniform expansion joints in the sidewalk, keeping in mind at the corners where the sidewalk goes around you might want to make an expansion joint that is beveled (look at your real sidewalks for the design--I also cut curves at the end of the block or at corners).  I have used surface wiring inside the buildings and have held the wiring down with staples right into the foam board which is easier, running the wiring through all the buildings on the block to a junction connection which is wired to one of my transformers.  This is cheaper and easier than hand cutting masonite and the foam even takes any kind of paint because the foam board has a skin on it.  Attached is a photo showing the sidewalk I made (on the left for the house) which is next to several buildings having masonite (in the center), and then finally to an MTH plastic building (on the right corner of the photo) with the noticeably thicker sidewalk.

I have attached another photo showing an entire city block with four structures on it.  You will notice that there is a front yard in front of one of the buildings because it is not as deep as the adjoining building.  The sidewalk is all around the block.  You have to first get the maximum square to encompass your buildings, any front yard, and sidewalk width when cutting to avoid making pieces.

No.  The buildings just sit atop the foam board with no glue.  That way you can pick them up to change lights that are placed inside.  On one of the Plasticville structures, I put a couple of the large bulletin board tacks in each inside corner so that the structure would not slide--the tacks keeping the building right on the foam board as well as securing the foam board to the platform.  Another approach is to use double faced tape along portions of the outside edge of the foam board on the bottom.  This will make the foam board lay flat on the platform.  All of this eliminates gluing and still gives access to the interior of the building by just lifting up the structure from the foam board if need be.  Most of the time gravity will hold everything in place anyway.  Best of luck with your project and let us know how it went for you.

This is an interesting thread because it highlights the very different building techniques that work best for the very different looks one can seek on a layout.  

Some of the layouts here are very different in overall approach.  A few go for utter realism, where is see the masonite of methods like I used working best, while others are working toward a classic toy-train layout look: the foam is a cool idea.  I'm impressed with the work-ability of approaches in either world, and how well the results look in both.  One more reason why this is such a great hobby - so wide a range of options from which to choose.

Chris,

very simple.

I use sand paper 400grits painted grey and finally weatherized with chalk.

the tar is a mix of glue and black paint applied using the glue bottle.

here is another application.

AG,  this is Chris,  thanks very much for answering my question...  Great approach,  I have used sandpaper for roofing material before, never dawned on me to use it for road surface and weather it with chalk....  Also,  the tar formula is a great innovation...  I tried latex black caulk, but that didn't work at all....   I look forward to trying the black paint and glue formula out of a glue bottle.  

Again thanks for taking time to answer and post photos.   Chris a  

For those of you making Masonite sidewalks, how are you making joints?  I'm thinking maybe a few passes with a saw blade?

I've never worked with Masonite before, does it cut well on a table saw for ripping into strips? 

I make joints by a few passes with a Zona saw, and then smudging them with a lead pencil after painting.

jackson

PRR

For me, I have run many a feet of it through my table saw and used a chop saw on it as well.

I have made my roads and airport  runway out of that material. I have also cut it on other non train projects.  No problems.

Larry

Home Depot used to stock 2' x 4' pieces of 1/8" MDF but no longer. We have a lumber yard that stocks 4' x 8' pieces. Last time I bought some a few years ago it was only about 8 bucks a sheet. 8 foot strips will eliminate or lessen the need for joints.

Pete

Great - thanks for the help, guys!  I'm only limited to Lowes, but I'll see what I can find.

The basses on most MTH building are grotesque.

I use Evergreen styrene 12 X 24 sheets for my streets and .080 sheet for the sidewalks and building bases. I use a Squadron Shop panel scribe to create cracks and joints. I print out with my computer flooring patterns or carpets then glue them down inside the buildings so they can be seen through the store front windows.

I also use styrene strips for curbing.

Those of you in Menards' areas....they have smaller sheets of most useful layout base items/thicknesses.  MDF, Masonite, Plywood, etc.. 

They also, as has been noted on other threads, have Homosote!!

FWIW, always...

KD

Pete, Where do you get 1/8 MDF. I can only find 1/4 down here in the Wilkes-Barre area.

Gerry

Gerry, when I built that ten plus years ago it was readily available at Home Depot. When it became hard to find there I was able to get it in 4x8' sheets at a place called D&M Plywood in Buffalo, NY. 

Check out the specialty lumber yards in your area.

Pete