Road Markings – Making Road Markings With A Worn Look

Creating Worn Looking Road Markings

In this article we take a look at how to do worn looking road markings. We’ll be using the Scalemodelscenery.co.uk RX001-SET-OO UK Road Markings Stencil Pack. You can find the stencil pack in our shop here: https://www.scalemodelscenery.co.uk/shop/laser-cut-road-marking-stencils-oo4mm176/?v=79cba1185463

This Stencil pack covers most commonly used British road markings, made from a long lasting tough material will give the modeller many years of use. Making the job of adding road markings quick & easy to any layout or diorama.

Lets get started….

The stencils are designed to be cut down & fit on model sized roads. You’ll notice that the sheets have perforated cutting line it’s that you need to cut the stencil sheets down into sections. Cut the sheets down into sections along these cutting lines as shown on the right.

For the road surface i’ve painted for the purpose of demonstration in this article, a sheet of greyboard card with Woodland Scenics Asphalt Top Coat Road Surface Paint.

Now take the kitchen scouring sponge & cut into strips wide enough to dip into the paint pots. Peal off & discard the scouring bit of the sponge. I’m using two strips of sponge, one for the white road markings & one for the yellow road markings.

The paints i’m using are water based paints ones by Revell & the two colours i’m using are white & yellow. It’s recommended to use water based paints with these stencils which allows for easy cleaning with water after use.

Next job is to add a faint guide line with a pencil on the road surface, this can be rubbed out later.

Next lay your chosen stencil over the pencil guide line. The guide line i’m using to line up the left hand side of the bus stop markings.

Give the paint a good stir for a few minutes.

Apply some paint to the sponge strip. You don’t need much paint on the sponge!

Gentle dab the sponge over the stencil markings. Vary the amount paint you apply to give a worn look to markings as per the real thing. So in some places can be nearly worn away & other places hardly worn. Practice to applying the paint to see what effect works best for you.

The middle photo on the right shows the paint applied to the stencil.

The lower photo on the right shows the stencil being carefully lifted.

On any bits where the paint may of got under the edge of the stencil carefully touch up with some more paint the same colour as the road surface. Here i’m using a small flat brush to touch up some over spill of yellow paint.

Here the bus stop markings have dried. We’re aiming for a worn well used look so don’t worry if it’s not too neat.

Using the left hand yellow line as a guide line for the left hand side of the stencil, it’s time to add the white centre road markings. So same process as before but using the white paint, dry brush (dry sponge) the white paint on for the centre road markings.

Here you can see the centre white line road markings. Using the dry brushing (dry sponge method) gives a faded worn look.

Here i’ve also added the Give Way markings & touching up one tiny bit of white paint overspill.

For the continuous lines like the Double Yellow no parking lines:

First line up the stencil & again the dry brushing method apply the yellow paint to the no parking stencils. Then leave to dry.

Next overlay the stencil over the double yellow lines you’ve painted. This time however place the stencil end sections between the bits already painted on the road. This leaves clear the bits that got missed as shown on the right.

Go over the gaps with the sponge to fill in. Repeat till all gaps are filled in.

Touch up any paint overspill.

So you should have something like the two images on the right. Practice on a test piece first & then move on to your layout once your happy with the paint effect your after.

To clean the stencils run under the tap with warm water. For any stubborn paint bits carefully use a nail brush to gently remove the paint. Dry off ready for use next time.