Brick Wall (using Don Railton's approach)

[Mr Potato Head]

I went to the website that features Emmanuel Nouaillier and he used a term called "Forex" and I went looking for a website here's what I found www.alcankapa.com. Also there is a product called Gatorboard, both of these are for advertizing and are ment to be used outdoors. I am going to my local supplier next week to see if they have something simular. Plus according to Emmanuel it looks like he strips his foam core board to get a nice thin application of foam to make his brick walls! I will try to do this, i also have been collecting the foam trays that meat comes on, and I will try to use that. Some comes the color of brick, so theres one step that can be eliminated.
Gil
happy brick laying

[RoughboyModelworks]

It's not the house . It's my garage/workshop/playroom/sanctuary.
   Nick

Oh man, looks like a little slice of heaven-on-earth to me... decent size workshop below, apartment above, what more do we need. 

Paul

[shropshire lad]

It's not the house . It's my garage/workshop/playroom/sanctuary.
   Nick

Oh man, looks like a little slice of heaven-on-earth to me... decent size workshop below, apartment above, what more do we need. 

Paul

  Cor , talk about delayed reaction , it's months since I posted that . As to your question , "what more do we need ?", I think Russ will have the answer . A thong bikini-clad girl mopping you brow while serving ice cold drinks in the summer and hot toddies in the winter !
  The problem with my little slice of heaven-on-earth at the moment is that both upstairs and downstairs are dumping grounds for mine and the rest of the family's junk ,making the spaces less useful than they might be .

  Nick

[RoughboyModelworks]

Nick:

I must have overlooked the photo, fairly easy to do since the majority of the forum seems to be overcome with fantasies of subservient young women in thongs... 

Well, sorry to hear that your workshop and sanctuary are doing double-duty as a storage facility. Hopefully you'll be able to reclaim your space as work progresses on the rest of your property. Why don't families realize that workshops are sacred, hallowed halls to be forever free of their clutter but filled to the brim with ours...

Paul

[michael mott]

Marc said

I spent hours on sites collecting brick wall pics, and there is absolutely no consistency....at times not even within the same structure. Even here in town....every structure even when right next to eachother is different.

I had the opportunity to take a tour through the Medicine Hat Potteries where they used to make clay bricks and tiles and sewer pipes back in the early 70's during a kiln building course that I was on.

Marc one of the reasons for the colour changes on a lot of the older brick is because of the way they are stacked on the trolleys that move the bricks through the kiln when they are fired. The flames that carry all sorts of natural elements in them as they passed affected the bricks.  A lot of bricks have a colouration that is divided into thirds, this is also from the way that the bricks were stacked. The flames and the firing burns out some of the natural impurities of the clays that are used to make the bricks, and this adds to the chemical reactions during the fireing proccess.

regards Michael

[finescalerr]

And how do you replicate that accurately on a 1:48 or 1:87 scale brick? (I'm not being a smart alec; such subtleties as you describe can make a big difference to the appearance of a model, as can slight variations in the alignment of each brick, chips, discoloration, stains, and other imperfections.) -- Russ

[michael mott]

Russ, you ask a good question, I am not sure that I know the answer, It would in all likelyhood require a very dedicated and steady hand to accomplish this in 3D however painting each brick individually would most probably yield the best results, I know that there is a chap in England (Derek Bidwell) who paints individual bricks after sticking them onto a substrate. It would be interesting to see what is possible in paper with a printed surface. I know you have done some experiments with wood.

Michael

[finescalerr]

I have experimented with printing a photograph of actual brick on papers of various textures and have had the best luck with 90 pound Lanaquarelle cold press from France. Still the bricks are so small that I've been unable to detect three shades on a single brick. That aside, an embossed print looks darned good ... BUT:

Paper has some serious problems, the most difficult to resolve being corners. Folds tear or distress the paper. Joints leave an oversize divot to fill and color.

Russ

[marc_reusser]

Michael,

Great info. Thanks.  Nice to see you're still hanging around. How is your wunderful layout coming along?

Russ
It's not hard to paint each brick seperately.....just absolutely mind numbing...remember these, 1/35, and scratched from plastic.





MR

[shropshire lad]

If it is painting individual bricks on card in 1/87th scale (or any other scale for that matter) THE one reference book that is a must is Chris Pilton's Cottage Modelling for Pendon published by Wild Swan . This book goes through the whole process of constructing and painting buildings made out of card with fantastic results. Each brick is scribed and painted individually, often with more than one colour , to give some of the best looking buildings in any scale , and these are 1/76th scale . The only shortcoming of the book is that there are not enough colour photos .
Check out www.pendonmuseum.com for more info .

I really must make the effort to go and visit one day .

Nick

[michael mott]

Russ
I hear you regarding folding paper, on Macton I used 140lb Arches watercolour paper to make the bricks, it was also mind numbing cutting them and gluing them on, however once done painting with watercolour washes is a joy when dealing with fine colour variances.

Marc
Macton is in the storage camper at the moment, I hope to get some work done on it when I have a bit more room. Presently I am working on the drawings for one of the 18 inch gauge steam locomotives that were used in the Crew Locomotive Works, I started to make a small 1/24th scale model which I hope to complete before building a 1/8 scale accurate model of the loco. I will start a thread on the 1/24th loco.

Nick
One of my regrets when last in England was not visiting Pendon, I used to dream about visiting as a young lad in the fifties.

Michael

[Brian Donovan]

Nice work Marc. Almost as nice as a pink foam brick station I did for a nephew a couple of years ago 






-Brian

[finescalerr]

Brian, go stand in the corner. And no peeking! -- Russ

[shropshire lad]

Russ ,

  I guess that you will now be demanding an article from Brian on how he built his magnificent station . Does that mean you won't want my article anymore ?

  Nick

[eTraxx]

Old thread. What ever happened with the Precision Board?