Heres a couple more pics of my CF-18 walkways with better lighting... You can see the texture contrast much better in these pics I think. Another good reason to use the paint method is you can customize walkway colours of course, but the best reason to do it this way is its scale
I have used the wet/dry paper for walk ways also and they do look ok but tend not hold up to well over time I have found. I have not tried the micro balloon mix method (nor seen it) myself so cannot comment on that method although sounds interesting! I have been happy with my painted method so until I see a better solution myself will stick with this way for now

Hope this helps...

Cheers-