Čtercové dlaždice (1,0 x 0,35)

A tiled floor from a single sheet

Scribing a regular grid of joints into smooth plastic is a whole evening's work, and one slipped groove spoils the result. An embossed sheet gets around that problem: the pattern is already there, regular across the whole area, and all you have to do is cut out a piece of the shape you need. It is used for the floors of station halls, bathroom and kitchen surfaces, paved yards or the facing of building plinths.

The material is white polystyrene, the same plastic that ordinary kits are made of. It is cut with a knife against a straightedge, snapped after scoring, sanded and drilled, and joined with solvent cement for plastic. It takes both acrylic and lacquer paints, usually without the need for a primer, although a thin coat of filler primer makes it easier to dust the joints afterward.

The fineness of this pattern points to small tiles: in 1:35 it corresponds to a mosaic of roughly a centimeter, and in the railroad scale of 1:87 to a tile of around three centimeters. Surfaces of exactly that kind are found in service rooms, washrooms or facings around windows.

The biggest difference to the result comes from a dark wash. It is flowed into the joints, the excess is wiped off the surface, and the area immediately gains a depth that paint alone will never give.

When setting it into a build, watch that the rows line up with the edges of the room. The surest way is to start at the most exposed corner and do the trimming only at the opposite wall, which will be covered by furniture, equipment or shadow anyway. Keep the offcuts; they will come in useful on some later scene.