So I finally got my dirty roads laid out and glued them with a mix of water and white glue and when I came back the next day, I found them cracked and shiny on the surface. Has anyone ever ha this problem and how did you fix it?
Add a couple drops of dish soap to the glue/water mix, add more dirt over the cracks, and glue again.
It's the white glue. Try using WS Scenic Cement or Matte Medium, they will have a better finish. But like JD said, sprinkle a light layer of dirt over the top after you spread the glue, then vacuum up the excess after it dries.
It's definately the white glue causing the shine. Usually I spread white glue with a brush and some water, sprinkle dirt/sand, dribble some 70% alc, and then dribble some matt medium/water 1:5. I keep this mixed and let the solids settle out, pour off the top. Probably overkill, but no shine. Oh, yeah, vacuum the next day before running trains.
Thank you guys for all of your help. Now this sounds wierd but I put down a small patch to test if it was actually the dish soap I put into it a lo an behold when I used just white glue and water, there was no shine at all.
I've had success using two different methods, which give slightly different (but still useful) results. The first is the traditional method like what you are doing, i.e. putting the road surface down and then misting/dropping a wetting agent and glue on top of the road making material. One slight twist is that I sprinkle some of the road making material on top of the wet mixture. It gives a grittier look. The second method is mixing the road making material 1:1 with a 50% glue/water mix. The result has a sort of toothpaste consistency. I then spread the mixture out to form the road. The result is a road with a finer appearance.
