All in all, its just uh nother brick in the wall...

[vilefileman]

Hiya,
I have been modeling N scale for about 2 years now, having made the move after being in HO for the past 15 yrs. My question is this.
I have been building mostly DPM and Cornerstone buildings, and then a bunch of laserkits.
The lazers are fine, I paint and most have that wood look.
The DPM, and the cornerstone are usually brick work, and try as I might, I cannot get the bricks, and especially the grout or mortar to work or look right.
I have tried:
Brick and Mortar wash, weather wash, painting and then using a 10% black, 90% alchohol mix (whcih sorta worked for the sidewalks), none of these have given me the look I see in modelroader, etc.
Perhaps its the colors I choose?
I have been able to create a great looking weathered design, but the mortar lines are so tiny, they just wash away.
ANY thoughts from any of you, your tips, your insights, etc would be greatly appreciated, pictures would help immensly also.

V

 

[eightyeightfan1]

When I was into N scale, I never even did the mortar lines. I just weathered the hell out of the building. My theory is, less than 1/4 inch of a mortoar line in 1:1 equals a micron(or smaller) in N scale...and would be hard too see any way.
I don't do mortar in HO either. Working in O,or the bigger scales I probably would.

 

[umtrr-author]

I was using much closer to full strength paint for my mortar lines. What worked OK for me was painting the whole side of the building and then wiping down the bricks, leaving the mortar lines intact. You have to work quickly though! I'll try to get to a photo later.

Because this is N Scale, the overall effect can and probably should be a lot more subtle. Lines that are too noticable could make the building look more cartoonish than realistic.

 

[fifer]

V , you might try painting the whole building the mortar color and then drybrush the building color on , then do the window frames.

Mike

 

[shaygetz]

My beloved and I use a wash of very thin Testor's Sea Grey over the side that has been prepainted Brick Red, followed by a wipe with a rag. We then carefully drybrush Brick Red over the whole side. Then we use several different brick red shades we've mixed and pick out individual bricks over the whole side, making some lighter, some darker. Where new bricks have been placed, we simply leave them one shade. We use the same basic technique for stone masonry.

 

[ddavidv]

I've had success using Badger's brand of paint (reefer white), just slopped on over whatever brick or stone color you choose. It's a really thin water based paint that runs into the crevices on its own. Let it dry, and then if you want you can experiment with rubbing it off the raised bricks (I haven't really tried that trick), perhaps with a slightly damp rag. Success is sort of dependent on how deep the mortar lines are. Some kits they are almost non-existent and it's a real chore to get it looking right. I've also had some success using pastel chalks.

 

[umtrr-author]

Well, better late than never... here's the promised example of what I did.

Trust the Acme Fine Loophole Company as your source for loopholes for all occassions...

 

[2-8-2]

Trust the Acme Fine Loophole Company as your source for loopholes for all occassions...

LOL! That's great! :thumb:

 

[TrainNut]

Only a couple times have I used a whitewash on red bricks and then wiped it off before I figured out this is a pain in the neck. While it does look good, it is very hard to achieve a uniform effect in cracks and around wall details where it is hard to wipe it back off. My favorite alternative is simply to highlight the highspots (the face of the bricks or any other wall detail) with a white prisma color pencil. If you think about it, I am doing the colors backwards but it seems to work and I like the finished effect. Sorry I don't have any good close up examples at the moment but play around with it.... you might like the effect. It takes what used to be a plain single colored wall and pops out the details.