Mortar ... or not?

[MVW]

Okay, here's a work in progress with the "box car red" paint job and tempera paint for mortar.





So ... what's the verdict? The look I'm trying for here is a building that's endured 60 Midwestern winters.

I used straight white tempera paint. Toning that down with a bit of black would have helped a bit.

This isn't a straightforward process. It took me more than hour to apply and rub off several coats of paint to get this look. The NSA sheet doesn't seem ideal because the mortar lines are fairly shallow. On the other hand ... this doesn't appear to look too bad.

After the mortar was in place, I hit the thing with an ink wash. That didn't seem to disturb the tempera much. I haven't dullcoated it yet.

Jim

[peteski]

Brick color looks good to me. IMO, the mortar is a bit heavy in spots but it is passable.  I would have attempted a more evenly applied mortar.

[Dave Schneider]

Jim,

Can't remember if you have an airbrush or not. If so, maybe a very thin application of thinned gray or black to tone down the bright white mortar. It looks way too bright for a 60 year-old building in my opinion. You could also try a very thinned application of the brick color, again just to tone the white down a bit.
It looks like you are getting closer.

For another cool looking technique, take a look at this tutorial from Monster Modelworks.
http://monstermodelworks.com/3D%20Building%20Materials%20-%20HowTo.pdf
Although this is done with "wood" bricks, it would be interesting to see if it would apply to styrene.

Best wishes, Dave

[MVW]

I agree, Peteski. But that's the "rub," if you'll pardon the expression. The mortar lines in the sheet don't appear to be uniform in depth. Try as I might, it was just about impossible to get mortar into some areas. It took some doing to get it as uniform as it appears. That's what took so long.

Or ... maybe I just don't have the skills yet. This is my first run at scratchbuilding. I went into this with the assumption that by the time I've built 20 buildings, it will be time to go back and do 'em all over again because I'll finally know what I'm doing. This whole thing is a hit-and-miss experiment.

Thanks for the comments. Any and all advice is appreciated.

Jim

[MVW]

Jim,

Can't remember if you have an airbrush or not. If so, maybe a very thin application of thinned gray or black to tone down the bright white mortar. It looks way too bright for a 60 year-old building in my opinion. You could also try a very thinned application of the brick color, again just to tone the white down a bit.
It looks like you are getting closer.

For another cool looking technique, take a look at this tutorial from Monster Modelworks.
http://monstermodelworks.com/3D%20Building%20Materials%20-%20HowTo.pdf
Although this is done with "wood" bricks, it would be interesting to see if it would apply to styrene.

Best wishes, Dave

Dave, I'm afraid I'm SOL on the airbrush. I don't have one and am not expecting to get one anytime soon. Or to put it another way, I can afford scratchbuilding materials or I can afford an airbrush. Not both in the same year.

Thanks for the link. That Monster brick is some nice lookin' stuff ... but it's expensive by comparison to other materials. I guess you get what you pay for.

I just finished putting the door and windows in the structure. I'm planning on hitting it with a couple more ink washes to see if that tones the mortar down a bit.

Thanks for the advice!

Jim

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I tried something new tonight. I made a  pink wash using my brick color and a mortar color in equal parts. Then I brushed it on and let it style in the mortar lines. the fact that it wasn't pure white made it work much better for concealing the over sized mortar lines.

[PAL_Houston]

Bricks in real life come in a large variety of colors: from creamy yellow through rusty reds to maroons and almost to brown.  So, unless you are modeling some specific (existing) building then you are pretty much free to use any brick color.

Bricks are normally made locally from available clays, so if you are modelling Baltimore the colors will be different than if you model Chicago.  Also, if pix look different than on your work bench, you may want toview your results on your layout with its ambient light before deciding.....

[MVW]

A few more washes have been applied.





It needs some touching up, but it appears to be getting closer to the desired effect.

Pretty crude work, I know. But there's only one way to get better.

Jim

[MichaelWinicki]

Maybe hitting it with some weather powders?

[MVW]

Maybe hitting it with some weather powders?

Bingo! Exactly what I was planning, Michael. Figured that should help blend the colors a bit.

Jim

[peteski]

Jim, whatever you have been doing is working. That building on the last 2 photos looks pretty darn good! Funny, to me the uneven mortar/brick coloring on the center of the building looks like a ghost of sign, painted on the wall many, many years ago.

[MVW]

Jim, whatever you have been doing is working. That building on the last 2 photos looks pretty darn good! Funny, to me the uneven mortar/brick coloring on the center of the building looks like a ghost of sign, painted on the wall many, many years ago.

Thanks, Peteski. I'm gonna try to hit this thing with some chalk tomorrow night, then I'll probably move on. I want to try another building in this complex, something that's slightly more elaborate, and using some slightly different techniques. This thing is close to as good as it's gonna get. It served its purpose, which was to let me try my hand at the most rudimentary aspects of scratchbuilding.

Interesting comment regarding the uneven mortar. I kind of like the effect, although I won't claim it has any resemblance to the real world. If it's somewhat plausible, eh, good enough.

Thanks for checking in. It's nice to know I may be moving in the right direction.

Jim

[MVW]

Okay, here's this brit shickhouse with some chalk applied:



Good enough, at this point. I'm going to hit it with some dullcoat and try to fix a few of my boo-boos, but that's it for this sucker.

I'll start a new project with the NSA sheet later this week, and try a different method.

I just ordered some of JTT's brick sheet, which is far and away the cheapest plastic sheet out there. I picked up some of their "wood planking" sheet a while back, and it looks OK (even though I haven't used it yet). Anyway, it will be interesting to see if there's any major difference in the material.

Jim

[MichaelWinicki]

The dreaded red "X".

[MVW]

Good evening, everybody, and welcome back to another fun-filled round of "Mortar ... or not?"

I'm nearing completion of my second attempt at scratchbuilding. Here's a shot from way too close:



Don't worry -- the windows aren't permanently installed.

This is pretty much the same procedure as last time. Using NSA brick sheet, painted box car red. I first tried the flour method, and got dismal results. I fear the mortar lines in the NSA sheet are way too tiny for that approach. So I went back to tempera again, only this time I thinned it about 50% with water and added a drop of detergent. It took only one quick application to get the above results.

I'm going to hit this with one ink wash to dirty things up a bit (it's supposed to be a 60-year-old building), but I don't want to overdo it. The wash seems to turn "box car red" to purple. And I'll go a bit lighter on the chalk this time around.

All in all, though, this seems to be a bit of an improvement from the first try, don't you think? Thinning the paint may be the way to go.

Jim