cobblestone clipart

"Peter Prewett" wrote

I doubt there would be such. Cobblestones by their nature are a bit of a "local rules" thing depending on where or how they're laid. And what they're made of: small round stones (usually ornamental or pavement edges, and favoured in seaside areas since they're usually beach pebbles - Brighton has this as a vernacular style as do parts of coastal East Anglia) or bigger flat-top setts used for pathways, roads, etc. Additionally, a lot of cobbling, intended to give a rain run off in uncritical areas or for light pedestrian use, would be paviours (thin bricks) or edge-laid scrap bricks. The style of laying might also be parallel, in semicircles, continuous run, stepped with stone lintel edges (over foot accesses and on canal towpaths leading up to bridges - I can think of a couple in Birmingham still extant and there are others) and latterly, patched with poured concrete or bricks, left rough with puddles, or part/wholly coated with tarmac. This latter is what's happened to many an urban street: under that blacktop is a layer of laid stones that last saw horses' hooves, or indeed trams.

The obvious suggestion is "look at prototype photos for your area and period" but since I see you're in Oz that's not too feasible. The preferred approach here, if you don't use the readymade stamped cardboard ones available (Superquick, possibly?) is to spread a slow-curing modelling putty such as Das over your intended cobbled roadway and impress cobble patterns in it using a punch formed from squashed 3/32" brass tube - squared off it'll give a profile of about 2 x 3mm which in 4mm scale (you didn't specify so I'll assume) gives a cobble of 6" x 9" which is about right for a stone sett. When it's dried, weather with grey-brown paint and dirty brown thinned for filling the "mortar" gaps (usually embedded dirt, though newly laid or cleaned cobbles will show whiteish mortar). Neglected corners will have grass in the cracks so make them greeny. Wet drip areas will be shiny. Keep it variegated and grungey. The later in the steam era and beyond you do, the more ratty they'll look, as the "heritage" value of cobbles has only really been rediscovered for kitsch in the last 20 years. Urban Britain anytime from 1920 to 1980 was pretty scabby in work areas; since then it's all turned into shopping malls and concrete slabs with car parks where factories used to be. Photos of my childhood are now weirdly informative, a sure sign I'm getting old....

Above all, look at how Allan Downes does it and then DON'T copy him. I know he has terrific technique, but IMO the stone buildings and roadways he painstakingly creates in 7mm scale are nightmarishly clean, regular and inhuman with no dirt or weather effect. Certainly if you're doing the surroundings of a goods or canal yard, the more crud the better as they were pounded relentlessly by carts, lorries, horseshoes, pollution, rain and feet with little thought of maintenance unless the puddles got deep enough to soak your socks!

Best prototype sources tend to be the many nostalgia magazines such as Steam World, Back Track, Steam Days, ByLines and the various regional mags (GWR Journals I find a mine of interest for my modelling interests) but again it's unlikely you'll find many in Oz.

To get you started, here's a slightly-heritaged canal towpath in Huddersfield to give you an indication of colours and patterns:

found by Googling on "stone setts" > Images. Doing the same on "stone cobbles" yielded this rather more authentic version:

or indeed the pebbly version: this is in the US but it's indicative of a lot of vernacular paths in Norfolk and Suffolk:

and a load of different styles to copy at:

Tony Clarke

I bought a set of the 00 Metcalfe embossed cardboard cobbles, but they come in quite small sheets which do not stick down very well. I ended up scanning them and duplicating them in series to produce much longer strips. I bought a roll of non-perforated banner paper and printed strips up to 2 feet long, which I glued down on display shelves with inset tramlines. I also enlarged them for use on another shelf with a Toronto streetcar (tram) and bus by Corgi in 1:48 scale. They look quite good.

Thank you Tony for the time you took in answering my question it is much appreciated.

Peter

I find that drawing out such designs on A4 using light lines to get the basic design, then, outline using an HB with the typical irregularities. Once having done that , using your finger gently rub on all the lines, use small circles and straight strokes. This will generate a soft shaded effect.

This technique works for stone walling and cobbles or paving. Once generated the printer will provide plenty of copies. Even slate roofing will come up good using a B or 2B pencil.

After laying you can apply an irregular wash of water diluted acrylic black to whatever shade of grey required. On a larger scale, concete slabs of various colours can also be successfully made.

All of my station platforms and embankment walls have been made this way and the general opinion is v. favourable.

Regards

Peter A Montarlot

In message , Peter Prewett writes

Hi Peter

Have a look at:

You may find something there.

Regards

There's some good ones under Stones/Paving Stones. They're of small areas, but well detailed. You could use a graphics program to clone them, then flip or rotate and join them together to create variety.

One small point is that we (Brits) seldom use curved cobbles, all those I have seen in UK are in straight lines, on roads they are laid end-to-end across the road but there is a three or four cobble run laid lengthways down the sides of the roads (or up the centre of a narrrow alley). What I have so far on this is at . . .

there are a couple of pics there

For printing I have had success with brick work using a picture to get the pattern of light and dark, blurred to get rid of the mortar, overlaid with a white 'mortar pattern' - Printed on a laser printer then given a wash of watercolour (burnt sienna etc) - when paint dries lay between two sheets of brown paper and iron (as the toner comes off under the iron). This is then stuck on using a very thin smear of PVA. Something similar, using a black grid pattern, could be used for cobbles.

HTH

Mike

Are cobblestones round or rectangular? Here in Melbourne, what we call cobblestones are rectangular, generally eight inches wide, length varies between ten and fourteen inches, sometimes they are called stone setts. And they aren't always smooth faced, some in the local back lanes have quite deep grooves on their faces, caused by many years traffic of iron tyred council dust carts and night carts. But not recently. Regards, Bill.

Spherical/ovoid cobbles occur just about anywhere in the north of England/south of Scotland, including under the tarmac outside my house. Except on the coast they are not normally taken from beaches. They are dropped by the receding ice at the end of succesive ice-ages, and are dug out of deposits just as sand is. Mostly flattened ovoids, they are layed "on edge". Setts are cubic, and therefore dressed, granite (usually), and are of much more recent development.

Ken.

Forgot to mention that a lot of the setts in Birmingham were wooden cubes until the 1950s. Quite treacherous in wet weather. Remember seeing them still smouldering in New Street after a blitz. I think they were only used in level areas, sloping surfaces were granite, the irregular edges gave better grip I presume.

Ken.

Wood block paving was used here in Melb. between the tramway rails and out beyond for about 18 inches. The blocks were red gum. When mass concrete came into fashion, the wood blocks were lifted and sold as firewood. With the tar impregnation that they had, they burnt real beaut! There's still a tiny section of them, about 50 metres, left on one tram route. Regards, Bill.

Peter Prewett wrote: I am looking for some cobblestones clipart, Google has not helped to date:-(

Any suggestions please.

Going back to the original question ..... a thought has just struck me, what about trying these people who construct driveways using this textured plastic 'lino' type material. They may even send a sample brochure if they are local !

Hi Peter

Just found out that the name Tumut is derived from an Aboriginal word meaning 'quiet resting place by the river' Looks great. A question for you, what does a 'Bogong moth' look like ? Is it the one with a tail that looks like a wasp ?

Not found in our area, the aborigines think it is a delicacy does make them ill until they get used to eating them, I think it is arsenic . I believe a major problem in Canberra area, as well as politicians. Just a normal moth shape

Peter