Monster Modelworks Yard Tower - Second annual Raymo Challenge 2018

[S&S RR]

This is the front of the tower - the side the viewer is going to see when it is on my layout. It will look a lot better when the concrete and trim are painted.

[PRR Modeler]

Nice looking brick work.

[S&S RR]

Here is a closeup of the brick on the left upper corner of the structure. I went to a toothpick to paint the dark gray accent bricks.  I wasn't happy with the bleeding of the black on to the mortar when I used a brush on the back of the building. I know - it's HO scale and the viewer will be three feet from the structure when it's on the layout.  But I like it better - and it's my railroad.

[S&S RR]

I should add that I used three different shades of brick red.  I added a few drops of dark gray to the brick red paint for one, I used the brick red straight from the bottle for two, and I added some white for the third. The lighter shade allowed some of the mortar color to show through on the brick.

[jerryrbeach]

John,

IMO the time you took to paint individual bricks really paid off.  Great looking wall.

[S&S RR]

John,

IMO the time you took to paint individual bricks really paid off.  Great looking wall.

Jerry


Thank you for following along and the kind words. IMO you have to get the level where it looks like individual bricks to make it look right. I really like working with the wood material for bricks and stone work. I still have some work to do to perfect the painting technique but I'm happy with the results on this build.

[MAP]

Wow.  Excellent looking brickwork John!  The individual brick detail really makes the walls stand out.  I noticed a few pics back a bottle of acrylic-poly primer.  Is that what you used for the first coat of gray primer?

[richbeau]

Nice work Mr Siekirk. I have some brick walls plus copping, cornice, etc. I have thoughts of scratchbuilding a small factory scene so your work is most helpful.

Note: Jimmy at Monster Modelwworks has a product how-to page that is very informative. The first link to an article on the Model Railroad Hobbyist (MRH) is pretty detailed.

--Rich

[S&S RR]

Wow.  Excellent looking brickwork John!  The individual brick detail really makes the walls stand out.  I noticed a few pics back a bottle of acrylic-poly primer.  Is that what you used for the first coat of gray primer?

Hi Mark


Thanks for the kind words.  Yes, the gray acrylic-poly primer is the color I used for the mortar.  To me it looks more like concrete than the concrete pre-mixed.  I think the concrete pre-mixed has too much green - it looks like you just poured it. I will be adding some chalks to weather the concrete on this build. It's in a yard full of steam locomotives.

[vinceg]

Great brickwork as everyone has said. Enjoying this thread....thx.

I must have missed it -- can't find it in the last few pages -- but did you paint all of the bricks with a toothpick or just the highlighted ones? If only the highlighted ones, how did you do the bulk of the brick painting?

Cheers,
Vince

[donatode]

Hey John.....one by one ...!!??!!

[S&S RR]

Great brickwork as everyone has said. Enjoying this thread....thx.

I must have missed it -- can't find it in the last few pages -- but did you paint all of the bricks with a toothpick or just the highlighted ones? If only the highlighted ones, how did you do the bulk of the brick painting?

Cheers,
Vince

Vince


Thanks for the kind words. The bulk brick painting was done with three different shades of brick red acrylic paint.  The cheap stuff.  I applied it with a small rectangular sponge using just the edge.  The routine was dip the edge in the paint dab it on a piece of paper towel and then on the model.  I'm heading back into the train room and will take a picture of the sponge to post this evening. Please let me know if this makes since or if you have any questions. The key to this process is to get the paint on the surface of the brick and not down into the mortar line.  If you look close you can find a few places where I had too much paint on the sponge.  I think I found a way to fix those places - if it looks good after the paint dries I will post some pictures tonight.  On second thought, I will post pictures which ever way it goes.   It's the forum.

[S&S RR]

Hey John.....one by one ...!!??!!

Well,  I have to admit that this structure took a long time to paint. I hope it was worth it.

[S&S RR]

Vince


I found this picture that I took while I was painting the tower that shows the sponges that I was using. When the sponge got to saturated with paint I would rip the corner off which created two new corners to work with.  I went through a couple sponges on this job. They come in a brick with about 20 of them per brick. I think I bought these from Micro-Mart based on the number on the package. The package is on the back of the workbench in this picture, next to my water glass that once again is to close to my brush wetting glass. You can see how I got the excess paint off the sponge on the paper towel. You can also see the three shade of paint that I was using in the palette. The paint is dabbed on with the sponge trying to only apply paint to the face of the brick.

[S&S RR]

I stopped to let the paint dry on one side of the tower and got side tracked on my Locomotive Works project.  I will get back to this project tomorrow and hopefully have some updated pictures.