Secret Weapon's Tablescapes, review and painting tutorial. Part 2 of 2

So here is part 2, sorry so long between posts but life is life.

The next step is too knock out the traffic lines.  This requires the use of a good bit of Tamiya masking tape, which due to it's consistent width measurements is the only way to do this.

The key to getting your lines straight across multiple boards is to get the first one right, and then use it to align the others.  If you are off a 1/4 of an inch, you will notice it when the boards are lined up. 

This takes some time, but the outcome is really nice.  I knocked out about 20 sections in 2 hours.  Once you get rolling, it gets easier.

Cross walks are even harder time wise, but also well worth it.  

Now when painting your lines build the lines up slowly with the airbrush.  There is texture on these boards and if you get to wet to quick the lines will spider web out under your paint.  Also, on the yellow lines, paint them white first.  Trying to get an opaque yellow line even on gray paint is hard.  paint yellow first and two yellow coats it will be a solid yellow line.

Once you get them all done.  Then you need to weather them.  I do this by dabbing on the same color as the pavement with a small sponge.  

As you can also see here this is when I add the gutter clutter.  I brush on super glue and then pour sand across it.  This looks amazing once it is hit with an airbrush and the dry brushed.  In the grim dark, you should not have clean streets...

Once all this is done I start doing the air brush weathering.  Before you do this, go LOOK at real old worn pavement.  The rust stains and dirty cracks is can all be reproduced in minutes with an airbrush.

  

After everything is done I hit it with a consistent dry brush color over every board, this ties them all together.  After that I soot the bottom of the craters with black paint.  Now you basically just need to paint the metal bits like the drain covers.  I did all of mine in various brasses and them washed and withered them.  I fell in love with ak interactive "crusty rust" paint.  This stuff is magic as seen below.

No you are ready for a good layer of your preferred dull coating of acrylic protection.  I use Krylov Archival and to do all of the tiles took 2 cans, but this is an essential step, as it makes them dice proof. Protect your work and investment.

One additional note.  The SW tiles have foundation spots and it you cut blocks of plasticard to match your buildings will go on seamlessly.  Example below:

Here are some images of various finished tiles for reference.  

 All in all this was a fun project, with an airbrush and just a little skill you can knock a 4x6 board out in about 24-30 hours of production time.  For me, aesthetics of the game are a key to enjoyment.  The more the terrain looks amazing them more you can get into it.  If you have questions, please post them here.  Enjoy.  College starts for me in 2 days and blog posts will slow, but this year I am trying to commit to atlas 8 hours of hobby time a week, to maintain sanity.  Cheers guys.