Best material for brick effects

[markblue777]

Hi all,

I am looking at doing my first scratch build and I thought I would do a destroyed house (nothing overly complicated just a couple of sides, possibly with a roof etc). However, I am at a loss on what to use to coat the Styrene with to enable me to create a good looking brick texture. From what I have read you can use a poly filler but what should I go for? for roof tiles what can be used?

Finally a very basic question, what sort of glue do I use for sticking the parts together, would Plastic Weld be fine or can you just use standard airfix modelling glue.

Sorry for the basic questions but once I start to get a grasp I am sure I will be able to help others .

Cheers

Mark

[AndyC]

Hi Mark

From my dabbling in railway modelling a few years back, you can get embossed styrene card in brick and stone that you just need to paint, however, this may need some work to represent shattered buildings.

The other options are DAS modelling clay laid thin and then scribed - I saw several structures done using this and it looked very realistic. It's also good for damage/missing bricks and can be painted easily. I've seen it demo'd in railway mags but not anywhere else...sorry

Hope this helps

Andy

[markblue777]

Hi Andy,

Cheers for that, I will have a look into it.

Mark

[dwh]

Hi Mark.

You might also like to look at the WILLS scenic range of brickwork sheets, different types available.

I found these to have a better defined brickwork pattern,they are 1mm thick so are easier to use than styrene sheet(IMHO),you can use standard Plastic Weld adhesive.

Do you know how much you need? as I may be able to find a few odd sheets, std sheet measures approx 5" x 3"

Derek

[gcn]

Ive used styrene as my background painted grey to represent the cement, painted an embossed piece of A4 in various brick type tones. Then cut the paper into scale brick shapes and glued to the base.

Time consuming but works.

[markblue777]

Hi Mark.

You might also like to look at the WILLS scenic range of brickwork sheets, different types available.

I found these to have a better defined brickwork pattern,they are 1mm thick so are easier to use than styrene sheet(IMHO),you can use standard Plastic Weld adhesive.

Do you know how much you need? as I may be able to find a few odd sheets, std sheet measures approx 5" x 3"

Derek

Hi Derek,

Not sure what I will need at the mo but once I finish my Diorama I will have an idea I will let you know,

Cheers

Mark

[Ratch]

This is Wills Flemish Bond

They also do English Bond (and probably others too)

[Richard E]

Would these be suitable: Scalescenes ?

[fidgeh]

If you're going to do a lot of these would it be worth investing in a Linka casting kit? There always seems to be a lot around on Ebay, some reasonable, some expensive and it's quite time consuming. However my friend has a set and has turned out some really convincing brickwork.

[Catbird]

For rubble use cat litter. Before the cat has had it though

[pte1643]

If you're going to do a lot of these would it be worth investing in a Linka casting kit?

I was just thinking that... Can you still get hold of it?

I've been mucking about with an old set I've had for years quite recently.

EDIT: Just to add... It's only good for 1:72/76 (OO/HO). As far as I'm aware it was never available in larger scales.

Edited October 1, 2011 by pte1643

[markblue777]

wow them structures are quite nice.

[Badder]

I make my walls and bricks from plasticard of varying thicknesses. For the walls of buildings I use 2 layers of thick card. I cover most of the outer wall with fine grade sandpaper to simulate render/plaster, and where I want the bricks to exposed I leave off the sandpaper and scribe the bricks with a scalpel. You can see some scribed bricks top centre of my photo below, and an example of a wall bottom left. The single bricks scattered about are made by scribing deep parallel lines of the correct width into the plasticard and then bending the card back on itself until it breaks into strips. Then I just cut the individual bricks off with scissors. You can make hundreds in quick time and can use them as rubble or for building badly damaged walls.

For roofs, I use horizontal strips of thin plasticard, scribing vertical lines to define tile edges. Then I add a new line of tiles, overlapping the first, again scribed with vertical lines, but moved along a half tile length so that the tiles are offset. The next line will be offset backwards so that it aligns with the first. For rafters I use coffee stirring sticks, split and cut to length (1/35th scalepl). For lathes, I use very thin lengths of split bamboo and for beams I again use lengths of plasticard, scribed with lines to imitate wood grain.

Edited December 26, 2015 by Badder

[detailstymied]

balsa foam (the soft version) is easily carved and then coated with diluted matte medium before final color.

http://balsafoam.com/