Cheap Roads from Vinyl Tiles.

Roads are a necessity for anyone gaming WW2 and if you're gaming in NW Europe you need lots of them!

I've been looking for a source of cheapish roads for a while. I've experimented with foam and felt but never been happy with the results. I tried making a few pieces from Plasticard and whilst they looked good they where unfortunately only good for flat tables, quite expensive at £1.50 for an A4 sheet, and it's a bugger to cut the curves.

Today however I think I may have stumbled on a solution when I wandered into the wargamers treasure trove that is Poundland. They sell Vinyl floor tiles in packs for 4 for (you guessed it) £1, the tiles are 30cm square. These are cheap, flexible, a doodle to cut with household scissors and have an adhesive backing so you don't even have to worry about covering them in glue. I bought 2 packs to experiment with.

After this I popped over the road to Wilkinsons to buy some more supplies. First I picked up some of their bird sand from the pet section. This is always a good buy and only costs £1 for a Kilo of the stuff. Considering that GW's modeling sand is now £5 for 100 grams , the wilkos alternative is quite literally 1\50th the price of GW's. Doesn't that make your head spin?

Wilkos Acrylics

Also I looked at their art section. They do some useful and cheap acrylic paints that are good for terrain. A 75ml tube of their 'burnt umber' paint is 90 pence and a almost exact match for GW's Scorched Brown. This would be an excellent base color for my roads. I also grabbed a tube of their 'burnt sienna' color which I thought looked a good terracotta color for roofs on model buildings. I've not tried it yet but I'll probably post something about it in the future when I do.

After cutting the tiles into pieces I removed the backing and covered them in sand. It adhered nicely, thought there where a few small bald patches that I touched up later with PVA. Once painted though this should seal the sand nicely.

A few of the pieces after they had been sanded.

One of the pieces after being painted.

Tomorrow I shall drybrush and flock the test pieces and post the reults!