Black roads or bley?

[alienwar9]

Hi,

I'm trying to figure out the best way to make my roads for my large city build. Since the entire layout depends a lot on the width and make-up of the roads, I thought it would be a good idea to start there.

I originally tiled the roads dark gray with white markings, using 16x32 and 8x32 tiles (8x16 in LDD only) to have a total 24 stud wide roads. I had a problem as I couldn't make the roads 4 lanes wide, and 2 lanes would look too stretched, so I left it at 3 lane one way streets. Obviously this isn't the greatest, so I looked to vary the width of the roads throughout the city. This meant baseplates would come out differently, and the whole city layout would have to be completely changed (which I have no problem with).

I started looking at road techniques and tutorials and finally came to Mike Gallagher's wonderful work. After seeing the possibilities with roads, I figured everything is now on the table...go wild with design. From there I probably would do some "conservative working" cutting out sections of design.

But my main problem still remains... what color?!

Here are the 4 possibilities that I think the roads could be:

The actual layout of the road will be different. These are just the colors. The second 2 roads are actually black, ldd just seems to render black in a slightly blue hue. I know most roads now are being built with the 4th road, the black and light grey, but I think the 2nd one (dark grey road w/light grey sidewalk) seems a bit more realistic. I haven't driven on that many black roads, so in MOCs it looks kinda weird for me (but at the same time, very eye catching with the colors)

I really can't decide. Any ideas? Which one's do you guys prefer?

1 (top left)

2 (top right)

3 (bottom left)

4 (bottom right)

Thank you for any help!

Here is the model with all the details about it so far.

[BlackKat]

Have you considered using SNOT bricks rather than tiles on a baseplate? I know you are working in LDD right now so it might require you to switch to MLCAD/LDraw for flexibility, with I am guessing the eventual intent being to buy and build in actual bricks.

But in any case using SNOT bricks can give you a lot more flexibility for layouts from everything to road width to markings, and lets you do away with having roads that look like they're comprised of square tiles as the visible gap between bricks is less visible than between tiles.

See the following example (not my Brickshelf page or my work):

http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=164943

[FreeBee]

Have you considered using SNOT bricks rather than tiles on a baseplate?See the following example (not my Brickshelf page or my work):

http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=164943

Here's another link for snot roads(not my Brickshelf page or my work)

[Captain Green Hair]

I like the dark bley road with the light grey pavement best, seems most realistic to me as roads are never really black.

Can't decide on white or yellow striping though, both look good to me and can be combined to use it to certain road areas.

Good luck on it!

[prateek]

lt. grey sidewalks with dk. grey roads is my favourite. As for the lines, where I live, the dashed lines and merging lines are white and centre median lines are yellow.

[alienwar9]

Thanks BlackKat! Those pictures gave me tons of great ideas too! I was really looking for stuff like that.

to FreeBee: thank you. Those are Mike Gallagher's roads I believe though. They looked so nice so that's why it is hard for me to decide between black and grey.

That's the same way my roads are (yellow medians and white dashies).

The reason I did the whole setup in tile was simply because I thought it was cheaper. That way I could keep the buildings just on baseplates and not have to raise them up. But I've calculated the price difference for raising everything 1 brick height and using technic connections and it should be around $200 (which is not bad considering how large the model is). And also I think I'd save a lot using SNOT roads instead of an insane amount of tiles anyway. I already have to do the sidewalks (I prefer tile sidewalks to SNOT-walks ).

And I've figured a way to do SNOT roads in LDD anyway. You just have to use technic holes and pegs and the road doesn't get caught on the Lego name on the studs.

So this is what the roads look like in SNOT:

I've cut out the light gray roads, they just look weird. So, which one looks the best?

Thanks again!

[TerranCmdr]

My vote goes for the bley with the light gray sidewalks.

[k_peek_2000]

I agree, top right corner just feels right on the eyes.

[alienwar9]

I photoshopped a few MOCs I found to test out color. These are 3 out of the 4 color options I'm looking at. I just thought it might be easier to get an idea what it will look like with better color representation and a background.

Note: these are not mine. I just edited the photos and changed the color of the streets. The black street with light gray sidewalk is the original.

It's just a quick edit, so ignore the sloppy color fill.

I hope this gets a better idea of color options that I am looking at.

[BlackKat]

Definitely I would go with the Bley with the Light Grey sidewalks.

The reason for the Bley is around here is roads are rarely true black (although not as light as the Bley) but also I find that in photos the Black is a little too shiny and reflective (I know that sounds odd) compared to the Bley which is more of a matte looking color.

One thing you can note from amongst the many examples of SNOT roads is people actually set up their city blocks with indentations sized to fit 32x32 baseplates (or other sizes) such that they are nearly flush with the sidewalks upon which the buildings are built.

Sort of a modular system making it easier to change things around, build the buildings independent of the layout before placing them, and making it easier to transport if you take them to club meets or shows for display.

[Milan]

Another vote for Bley with the Light Grey sidewalks.

It looks very nice and realistic. Other options are good, too, but this one is the best!

[tedbeard]

The reason I did the whole setup in tile was simply because I thought it was cheaper.

I have always found roadplates to be the cheapest option whenever I have tried to price out large amounts of road. Even with sidewalks built up I cannot see how SNOT or tiled roads are cheaper especially considering they are usually built on regular baseplates. Am I missing something? An amazing source of really really cheap brick perhaps? I don't know of any cheaper place than BL or PaB.

[Scorpio]

Personally, I have gone with SNOT black roads with light gray tiled sidewalks. I like the way that it looks in my layout. It is a little bit shiny but I like the contrast of the black road with the other colors around. For me black roads make the road markings and lines stand out more. Also, I was blessed with a lot of "free" black 1x4 bricks (filled up 8 holiday pick-a-brick boxes)

[Peppermint_M]

It depends what you want it to look like. Do you want brand new asphalt/tarmac roads? Go black. You want older looking go dark bley, you want concrete then go light bley.

(Highways Technician... I know too much about roads )

[alienwar9]

Haha! I just filled up 8 holiday brick boxes also. But I went to 4 Lego stores to get the widest assortment of bricks I need to test out things for my build. I noticed the shininess of the black also, and the contrast and visibility of the road lines. But I think from what everyone has been choosing so far, I'm gonna go with the dark bley roads and light grey sidewalks. I feel like the contrast is too much with the black roads, and it pulls the eyes away from the buildings (some other people have noticed that too).

to tedbeard: Yes, just baseplates would be cheaper, but I don't like the fact that the roads are only 2 lanes wide. I wanted to have wider roads, and now with my redesign, I need all different sized roads, plus a road that goes on an angle (which I could use help on).

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Speaking of the angled road, I've looked at Mike's version, and I looked at the road in that picture I posted, and it seems that in the picture they got the angled road to "blend in" better. As in, there are almost no spaces between the regular roads and the angled road. Does anyone know how this was or could be done? Any ideas?

The angled road I'm trying to make goes through a 3 way intersection, two 4 way intersections, a 6 way intersection, over a river, and at one point becomes a one way street. Yeah, now that I typed it out it sounds complicated, but I think it looks real good.

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I'm going to TRY and get the redesign done quickly, but it's not going to be easy. I also was just tinkering and somehow ended up building an entire subway and station (albeit bad colors), so I'm rebuilding it in LDD and I'll post that quick.

I'm still up for color change, so any ideas or picks are welcome!

It depends what you want it to look like. Do you want brand new asphalt/tarmac roads? Go black. You want older looking go dark bley, you want concrete then go light bley.

Actually, now that you mention it, I might just make some roads different colors to represent different districts in the city and the quality of the roads there. Though I'll have to check and see if it doesn't just look weird. The sidewalks will be staying the same color though (of course special sidewalks being an exception).

[alienwar9]

I'm still having some issues with the angled roads. This is where I got the picture from, but it doesn't mention what club built the design. I can't tell from the pictures what pieces they used.

The roads are looking pretty nice, though I think every street might have to be custom to that particular part of the city.

I just have to add the roof for the subway station. The curved walls worked out real nice in LDD.

Anyone have any ideas on how to "blend" the angled SNOT roads to horizontal/vertical SNOT roads? (the point where they meet)

[Stash2Sixx]

I'm pretty sure those were built by Mark and Jeramy from Railbricks. That's just a guess based on the 0-6-0 switcher and the ballasting of tracks in the background.