Woodland Scenics Road Sytem - Using Smooth-It

[Trucklover]

Pouring and Smoothing the Smooth-It

Once you have mixed it up, you can pour it in between the paving tape. I usually start somewhere on one end of the road. I pour some of the mixture in, take my small Putty Knife and push the mix to the edges of the Paving Tape. Then ill go about 5" down the road, pour some more in a blob, and so on.... Don't pour to much Smooth-It, if you need more, you can always add a little more. After you pour the mixture in between the tape, take the spreader and start at the end of the road you began pouring the Smooth-It. Start the spreader on the paving tape and LIGHTLY drag it across the tops of the Paving Tape Edges. This is the part where you will notice where you need more Smooth-It or you have some chunks that need to be removed with the Putty Knife....

If you need more Smooth-It, pour a bit more where it is needed. If you have chunks that are making streaks in the pavement, take your small Putty Knife and with the corner remove the chunks. After put the Putty Knife in the cup of water. Also, some of the chunks might be stuck to the spreader, It is always good to clean of the spreader in the cup of water so you start smoothing with none of the mixture on the spreader again. Continue to work your way down the road, smoothing the Smooth-It between the Paving Tape, adding more where it is needed and removing any chunks that might be there. REMEMBER, this coat is only the first coat, and a ROUGH coat at that, it does, by any means, have to be smooth at all.

After you have finished smoothing the first coat between the paving tape and making sure that no layout base is visible between the 2 strips of Paving Tape, let it dry. I usually let it dry for at least 12 hours or until the first coat is completely white . After about an hour, you can remove the Paving Tape Edges. Sometimes these can be reused, sometimes they cant. If there still sticky, you might be able to re-use them on the next section, if not, just throw them away. You can also start to lay out the next section of road using the Paving Tape if you would like, just be careful not to mess up the previous laid section, a;though, it should be cured enough after an hour.

You can also clean up the excess Smooth-It that spilled over the Paving Tape on the first section. Use your Small Putty Knife and scrap it up and throw it away

I would also like to point out that it is at this time where you should clean your tools and make sure your Putty Knifes are dry so they do not rust. PLEASE, DO NOT CLEAN YOUR TOOLS INSIDE, go to a hose outside and wash them over a drain, if you clean them inside, the left-over Smooth-It could harden and clog your drains

This is what my Highway looked like after the first coat of pavement. This was on the second section i laid for this Highway






Smoothing the First Coat

After the first coat has been laid and completely dried, you can take your small Putty Knife and gently scrap off any raised parts of the road/highway. This will make it easier for the second coat to further smooth the road



As you can see, i pulled up quite a bit and smoothed quite a bit of raised sections out from the first pour....

After this, make sure to thoroughly clean the area, I use my Vacuum to clean up the bits i scraped up

The Second Coat

After you scrap off any raised areas from the first pour, mix up a second batch of Smooth-It. This time make it a little thicker, this means less water. This Batch also can be a small one, just enough to coat the first pour with a thin coat to fill in any ruts and cracks....

Take your large Putty Knife, scoop some of the mixture out of the mixing container, and plop it at one end of the road. Begin to smooth it into the first pour. It is important that your mixture not be to watery at this point. If it is, let it sit there for a minute. After this coat, your road should be a little smoother. And if your happy with it after this coat, leave it, your done with the coats

The large Putty Knife really comes in handy on this step. All your trying to do is fill in those ruts and cracks. If the Smooth-It is too high on the large Putty Knife, take the smaller one and scrap it down to the edge of the large one.

There is a point where the mixture will become too sticky and appear to tear up the road, when this happens scrap the remaining mixture off the Putty Knife and throw it away and get some more and repeat

Here is a picture to show how i pour the mixture to smooth it:



This is what mine looked like after a second coat:




The Third Coat

If your road needs a third coat, repeat the process in "The Second Coat" above. Take the small Putty Knife and get rid of any raised parts like before. Mix the Smooth-It the same way and spread it the same way with the large Putty Knife

Here is what mine looked like after the third coat:




The Fourth Coat

If your road still needs another coat, repeat the last 2 steps above. This should be the final coat. Remember to take the small Putty Knife and get rid of any raised parts before you do the final coat. If your road still needs more smoothing after this fourth coat, repeat until you are happy. Remember, roads are NEVER truly smooth, and if there is still some small ruts and cracks, that's okay

After the fourth coat:




Painting the road

I chose to paint my Highway with a mixture of Woodland Scenics Asphalt Top Coat Paint and regular White Paint from a craft store. I mixed both of them together till i got a Gray color i was happy with....




And that's it, you now should have a nice looking road using the Woodland Scenics Road System