Monster Modelworks Yard Tower - Second annual Raymo Challenge 2018

[Mike Engler]

Am enjoying this John. I don't recall another build-thread that took four full pages before the carton-unpacking photos. All good stuff! I love Jimmy's brick products.

[S&S RR]

Am enjoying this John. I don't recall another build-thread that took four full pages before the carton-unpacking photos. All good stuff! I love Jimmy's brick products.

Mike


Thanks for stopping by - and you have a good point. Planning is the most import part of the build - right? I'm really enjoying the process of perfecting what I think are good looking brick walls in HO scale. I have a little more work to do and then I'll get this build going.  

[S&S RR]

So, tonight I'm going to post all the pictures of the brick coloring experiments I did in preparation for this build. I should start by saying that I have been coloring brick wall castings made from hydrocal and resin for many years and was very happy with the results I was getting with both acrylic paints and with pan pastels in resent years and also with those smelly paints we used in the past.  This build is my first attempt at switching to wood as the base material for brick and stone buildings. If successful in making the switch, I think it will be much easier to cut window, and door openings for my scratch build projects. I have a lot of them coming up and really want to be able to make structures out of wood that look as good or better than those made of hydrocal, resin, or metal (in the case of FSM stone castings). One other motivation for the switch is that hydrocal structures, I have found, do not do well in the foreground of my layout - any little bump and I have touchup painting to do.  So now that I have stated my motivation for this, let the fun begin.

[S&S RR]

For round 2, after many attempts at trying to add mortar using the traditional final application with both chalk and paint, I decided to add the mortar first by paint the sample with grey primer acrylic primer first.

[S&S RR]

I then added the tradition brick red - with acrylic paint and a sponge on the top and pan pastels on the bottom.

[S&S RR]

Here is a closer look after I added the dark gray accent bricks.

[S&S RR]

A little closer look.  My conclusions - acrylic paints work well.  Pan pastels - I'm still looking for a technique on wood.

[S&S RR]

I think adding additional colors with the brush could be achieved very easily.

[PRR Modeler]

I like the grey spray undercoat to show mortar better than using a wash of bragdon weathering powder and 91% alcohol that's recommended in the instructions.

[S&S RR]

I then went on to try and perfect the multi - colored brick technique that I started in round one. In round one I found a color combination that I liked. I'm trying to achieve the color at the individual brick level rather than the blotchy multi-brick level. Here is a picture of one of the first tests I did using acrylic paints and a sponge I have successfully used for stone work with resin and hydrocal in the past. This actually doesn't look to bad until you zoom up and look at the individual bricks.

[S&S RR]

I like the grey spray undercoat to show mortar better than using a wash of bragdon weathering powder and 91% alcohol that's recommended in the instructions.

Curt


I agree, I didn't have much luck with pigments and alcohol to get the mortar look I was looking for.  The wood in the mortar joints seemed to absorb the pigment.  I had the brick surface color all washed out before I could see the mortar in the joints between the bricks.

[S&S RR]

I made three test samples to test the technique for the multi colored brick.  Sample number 6 was primed with Sand color Camo paint.

[S&S RR]

Sample Number 8 received a coat of 2 tsp. A&I to start the process. In round 1 I used 3 tsp A&I which made it a little to dark to start.

[S&S RR]

Sample 9 started the process with a coat of the Acrylic grey primer. This is the same base that I started with on Sample 7 which is the brick red sample.

[S&S RR]

The following Series of pictures takes us through the process of adding each color starting with the Flat Earth (brown) applied on individual bricks using a 3/0 brush. Sample 10 will be used for another test with a dark brown single color brick using the same technique that was used for the red brick.