Tiled Roads or Road Plates?

[beans]

For those of you with large city builds, I was wondering if you used Lego's Road Plates or tiled baseplates on your own, or something else altogether.

I'm thinking of starting a small town and am currently split between putting together larger plates or investing in some number of roadplates.

[BlueBard]

It's funny because I have exactly the same doubt about the roads for my Display

I would say it depends, if you want the roads just as a bit of decoration (for a vignette, or just one or two buildings put together), or you want to add some special details to it (like bus stop marks, for example) I would use tiled baseplates.

However, if you want the roads to be the "axis" of your MOC with buildings all along the sidewalks I think official roadplates would work really well, even if, IMO they're too much expensive as you're forced to buy a crossroad for each straight one, for example, when you're going to use at least two or three of the last one for each crossroad (In my case I just need 4 roadplates and if I buy them through SaP it would cost 48€ to me BUT if I just buy baseplates and tiles it would be much less )

Conclusion: it's all about how you're going to use the roads in your city, what type of MOC you're working on (vig or large diorama), and, as always, your budget

[prateek]

For a small display, like BlueBard's, I'd say to stick with tiled roads, but if you have a big town, use road plates

[soc399]

My town is too large for either to be very cost effective. Right now I just put grey fabric over my table. Plus, it's easier to make irregular train layouts without baseplates.

[AllanSmith]

I use LEGO baseplates from 1986 that are grey with grey roads for city scenes and I use LEGO baseplates from 1997 that are green with grey roads for countryside scenes. I have decided to stick with these as I'm sick of LEGO changing the colours all the time

City:

Countryside:

[Jasper Joppe Geers]

Road plates are still working for me, but in some cases i start thinking about tiled or bricked roads,

just to have more possibilities with things like pavement, roosters etc.

[beans]

For those of you with tiled roads, do you find that its overly glossy or 'liney' (from the gaps between tiles)? From the pics that I see, those are the main detractors for me.

However, if you want the roads to be the "axis" of your MOC with buildings all along the sidewalks I think official roadplates would work really well, even if, IMO they're too much expensive as you're forced to buy a crossroad for each straight one, for example, when you're going to use at least two or three of the last one for each crossroad (In my case I just need 4 roadplates and if I buy them through SaP it would cost 48€ to me BUT if I just buy baseplates and tiles it would be much less )

Do the baseplates and tiles cost that much less? Seems like a lot of tiles...

[lightningtiger]

I'm using baseplate roads for my town, although tiling could be used for driveway entrances for servo/garage's, car dealers or even shopping centres.

To tile every road is okay in the city or in straight lines, curves are another matter altogether - so that's why I decided on just using ready made road base plates.

I'm a conformist! 'beans' I'm a conformist! !

[cagri]

I think original LEGO roadplates lack texture so I don't like the way they look. Tiles don't look like roads either. I came up with a SNOT method which costs a lot and requires careful planning but I think they look better than other two versions.

[Ralph_S]

I agree that what sort of road you want depends on the type of city you're building. If it's more old school (relatively small buildings) that you can build on the sides of the roadplates, roadplates are probably a good option.

I didn't use road plates for my own city (well, city street) because I felt they had too many limitations. They are hard to combine with cafe-corner compatible buildings, because they already have a footpath. Having the road plates lie against the baseplates that the buildings sit on looks awkward. Putting the baseplates that the buildings sit on on top of the road plates causes all kinds of issues with side streets and at the edges of the display.

Tiled roads offer more flexibility, but like Cagri I feel that the most attractive option is roads built with bricks on their side. It's something other members of the Brickish association have been doing and I always liked it, in particular because it means you can add your own road markings such as the 'Bus stop' written on the road in my street.

It's not cheap though, but then again, very little in this hobby is.

Cheers,

Ralph

[BlueBard]

Do the baseplates and tiles cost that much less? Seems like a lot of tiles...

Ok, maybe it won't cost so much less... But think that a roadplates set costs 12€ and you have two regular plates (one very useful and the other sometimes a bit useless) and for around 14 € you have a 32x32 baseplate + 256 2x2 tiles to "customize" it your own style As Ralph-S says very little in this hobby is cheap but you must think that tiled roadplates are just "the ones you need"

For a small display, like BlueBard's [...]

Well, it's a 96x96 studs display. This is small? Well, I suppose there are bigger ones

[Jasper Joppe Geers]

Ok, maybe it won't cost so much less... But think that a roadplates set costs 12€ and you have two regular plates (one very useful and the other sometimes a bit useless) and for around 14 € you have a 32x32 baseplate + 256 2x2 tiles to "customize" it your own style As Ralph-S says very little in this hobby is cheap but you must think that tiled roadplates are just "the ones you need"

Hang on! This depends largely on the way you tile such basplate...

in case you use 1 x 2 tiles you should be a lot more watchful on your wallet!

I for one don't think that the money issue should limit your ideas and creativity,

exactly like this cae here, but that's a side track to another discussion...

[MetroiD]

Personally, I'd go with Cagri and Ralph here and vote for SNOT roads. They create tons of possibilities and are ultimately much more flexible in terms of utilisation than tiled streets. Unfortunately, they're none too cheap, but well there aren't too many things about this hobby that are 'cheap' anyway

[beans]

I agree that what sort of road you want depends on the type of city you're building. If it's more old school (relatively small buildings) that you can build on the sides of the roadplates, roadplates are probably a good option.

I didn't use road plates for my own city (well, city street) because I felt they had too many limitations. They are hard to combine with cafe-corner compatible buildings, because they already have a footpath. Having the road plates lie against the baseplates that the buildings sit on looks awkward. Putting the baseplates that the buildings sit on on top of the road plates causes all kinds of issues with side streets and at the edges of the display.

Tiled roads offer more flexibility, but like Cagri I feel that the most attractive option is roads built with bricks on their side. It's something other members of the Brickish association have been doing and I always liked it, in particular because it means you can add your own road markings such as the 'Bus stop' written on the road in my street.

It's not cheap though, but then again, very little in this hobby is.

Cheers,

Ralph

This definitely seems like the most attractive option but yes, that is a lot of bricks. You have to elevate the rest of the city with bricks as well right?

Has anyone used a combination of road plates as well as tiled and/or snot roads? I'm a little curious of something like that could work or if it'd just look totally mismatched.

@lightningtiger Do you have any pics of your roadplates used with tiled driveways?

[BlueBard]

Hang on! This depends largely on the way you tile such basplate...

in case you use 1 x 2 tiles you should be a lot more watchful on your wallet!

I for one don't think that the money issue should limit your ideas and creativity,

exactly like this cae here, but that's a side track to another discussion...

Ok, you're right, but I just tried to say that doing your own style tiled roadplates is probably more expensive but you can do them really as you need, and you're not forced to make them 32-wide Nevertheless I agree with you when you say money shouldn't be a limitation, as you should use your creativity for creating what you want with what you have , but sometimes you really need "those special" bricks...

Anyway, IMO the Ralph-S SNOT technique is the best, but a bit too expensive (at least for me), and I would recommend the tiled baseplates one and just in the case all options are too expensive the official roadplates (That's what I'm planning to do in my Display! )

[Jasper Joppe Geers]

Ok, you're right, but I just tried to say that doing your own style tiled roadplates is probably more expensive but you can do them really as you need, and you're not forced to make them 32-wide Nevertheless I agree with you when you say money shouldn't be a limitation, as you should use your creativity for creating what you want with what you have , but sometimes you really need "those special" bricks...

Anyway, IMO the Ralph-S SNOT technique is the best, but a bit too expensive (at least for me), and I would recommend the tiled baseplates one and just in the case all options are too expensive the official roadplates (That's what I'm planning to do in my Display! )

Oh, no offense! Haha, on the contrary! For sure you can do a lot more

when creating you're own road. Even though the current road plates

come close to real measurements, they're still those 32 x 32 squares

when put together.

I'd love to create a huge display once i find myself another room to display

everything, but until that time i (thankfully) have to do with those squares...

[mgleslie]

Like the idea of tiles on a baseplate, I haven't made up a building MOC yet (only recently got back into LEGO) but how would you get a smooth curve for a road corner using the tile and baseplate method?

To look like the curved plate in this image.

[Big Cam]

I think plates are an easy way out, btu they only provide so much building room on any given corner. Then again, it often comes doen to cost, as they are cheaper than tiles or SNOT.

I think SNOT looks the best but as mentioned is expensive adn time consuming. I think the size of the project along with your current inventory of parts should be the biggest deciding factor.

[AllanSmith]

I didn't use road plates for my own city (well, city street) because I felt they had too many limitations. They are hard to combine with cafe-corner compatible buildings, because they already have a footpath.

On the road plates I use the studded area as car parks (with grey parking meters and white tiles as the dividing lines between parks) and the painted path as a cycle lane. This works out well with Cafe-corner style buildings. See picture below.

[prateek]

Well, it's a 96x96 studs display. This is small? Well, I suppose there are bigger ones

Yours is a display, but there are bigger displays I call towns

[alienwar9]

SNOT roads are actually not that expensive if you buy the pieces from bricklink. I'm building a HUGE display (11x15 feet) so I really had to figure out the most cost affordable and viable method. A SNOT road built on a 32x32 baseplate comes to about $12 with the simplest form. If you want to add designs, more lines, etc then it probably becomes more expensive. Road plates are around $15 USD through Lego and about $4 from bricklink.

It really depends if you are going to use those "extra" T sections and 4-ways or not. And if you have a lot of turns or intersections then the SNOT road becomes a bit more expensive also.

As far as raising the buildings up by a brick, for a 32x32 building, it costs around $5.40 for the bricks and plates. So a single building with a road would be around $17 compared to just a road plate at $15 (with the extra spare odd plate).

Now that doesn't count shipping or extra costs, but a tiled 32x32 is around $13.

The prices aren't that much different if you are not making too many curves or special plates. Tiles don't look so great when making a turn, though SNOT turns use a lot of pieces.

In the end, I'd say it depends on your layout and what you want. If you have just a single street, or a few square blocks, I'd say go with SNOT as the price difference isn't that significant. If you have a larger "square roads" layout, I'd say buy the roadplates from bricklink or somewhere cheap. If you have a smaller layout with a lot of turns, you can use SNOT or baseplates, its really up to you. And finally, if you have a larger layout with turns, go with baseplates. But if you want to add some style or complexity to your roads, the only good way is SNOT.

Either way, I wouldn't recommend tiles. They look funky with the edges, and they are not cost effective (price is close to SNOT roads).

Good luck with your layout which ever way you choose!

[Mercenary]

For those of you with large city builds, I was wondering if you used Lego's Road Plates or tiled baseplates on your own, or something else altogether.

I'm thinking of starting a small town and am currently split between putting together larger plates or investing in some number of roadplates.

I'd say to USE ROAD PLATES. With all those tiles PLUS the reagular baseplate, It would be cheaper to use the road plates.

[Ralph_S]

This definitely seems like the most attractive option but yes, that is a lot of bricks. You have to elevate the rest of the city with bricks as well right?

The buildings indeed need to be raised as well, but you can basically use any old parts you've got lying around to do it with, since they'll be covered by the buildings anyway. I used 16x16 stud frames built with technic bricks and some wedge plates, all studs up. The buildings are sturdy enough to not require support under their entire base.

I can't say much about the respective cost. Excluding the side road it's 192 studs of road or the equivalent of 6 road plates. I rarely keep track of how much the things I build cost (I probably don't really want to know), but I already had all the old dark grey bricks and plates I used for this in my collection. In contrast, I own a single straight road plate. An old grey one.

Cheers,

Ralph