Following on the previous success of my custom crests version 2 and the high rice paddy bunds for Burma, I’m now thinking of a set of raised roads. Raised roads were a common feature of Burma. They’ll be the same height as the previous features (1/4″ / 6mm). Otherwise they’d be, well, just roads. I’m hoping to convince Simon from S&A Scenics to make the base features then I’ll do the work to make them look like roads. This post is about my design for the roads, which was a project in itself.
High level spec
I’m designing the raised roads to align with a couple of features I already use: Crests, Bunds.
I worked with S&A Scenics to do my custom crests version 2
My high bunds for paddy fields are basically straight crests. I’ll post about them soon.
That means the raised roads will be 1/4″ (6mm) high and entirely made of MDF, just like the crests and bunds.
Each raised road feature has a flat road bit at the top, one or more slopes, and optional culvert. The road part is flat and 35mm wide. On each side of the roads are slopes. Culverts are just cut outs.
I have mocked all of these up in foam, so you can see what I’m talking about.
Warning: the only foam I had was 10mm high so my mock ups are too tall. Blue areas are to be left bare by whoever makes the base features; brown areas are to be sanded (the slopes).
[Option 1] and [Option 2]
I still haven’t finished the design. I want this to be as easy as possible for whoever makes these and the slope might be an area where it can be easy/hard.
[Option 1] is what I did for the mock ups, with 50mm wide features, making the slopes 6mm high and 7.5mm wide.
[Option 2] assumes it is easier to do the slopes with a 45 degree cut, so the slopes are 6mm high and 6mm wide.
Either would work for me.
[Option 1] Raised Road – All the features (at reduced scale)
This is the planned collection.
I need a variety of shapes:
– 100mm Straight
– 150mm Straight
– 200mm Straight
– 300mm Straight
– 100mm Straight with 20mm culvert (basically a short bridge that looks like the rest of the road)
– 200mm Straight with 100mm culvert (basically a long bridge that looks like the rest of the road)
– T Junction
– X Road
– Tight curve
– Gentle curve
– Ramp to fields
– Ramp to low road
[Option 1] Mock ups of Raised Road Sections
The mockups are for [Option 1] so 50mm wide. My blue foam is too high so the mockups are 10mm high when the final product should be only 6mm high (roughly ¼”) Brown slopes will be sanded; blue means unsanded.
[Option 1] Curves
The existing road set has a tight curve and a gentle curve. I figure I may as well follow that pattern.
The two curves for Option 1 are shown here. I used these, printed to the correct scale, as templates for my mock ups.
[Option 1] Junctions
I’m going to need road junctions. Both 3 way (T Junction) and 4 way (Crossroad). These are square features.
[Option 1] Culverts
The culverts are straight sections with a cut out on each side of the road, so there is no slope for that bit. These features are for bridge, although there is no bridge per se – anybody driving along the road would not even notice them.
The 100mm Culverts work with my existing river and ravine features
The 20mm Culverts work with my existing stream features
[Option 1] Ramp to Low Road
I want the raised roads to fit well with my existing dirt roads. So I think I need a ramp from one to the other.
The existing roads are about 2mm high so the ramp has to go from a raised 6mm raised road segment down to the low 2mm road segment.
The road bit of the ramp feature remains 35mm wide, like all the other sections.
But the sloped shoulder narrow. The road, plus shoulders, is 50mm wide at the raised end and narrows to 40mm wide at the low end.
[Option 1] Ramp to fields
I’ll use the ramp to fields to allow vehicles to get off the raised road onto the flat. I imagine it as roughly square, but with one curved edge.
The sanded slopes continue into the ramp to fields, but not very far.
