Brick & Mortar

[wazzou]

Yeah boB, I pick and choose the flour method for sure.
The gaps where mortar would be on your walls are almost equal to or larger than the actual bricks.
I use lightweight spackle a majority of the time and it is tintable.
I’ve used Craft Store Acrylics and/or India Ink to tint a nearly entire small container of spackle, so it’s not white.
I did this initially for roads and realized it would be beneficial for mortar as well.

[Sokramiketes]

The gaps where mortar would be on your walls are almost equal to or larger than the actual bricks.

And here's the philosophy part of the question!  I don't think highlighting the mortar on this particular example will make it better.  The proportions are off, and that will be the most noticeable.  The effect boB has right now is pretty good!

The best brick model I've seen in N scale was a Vince Kotnick model of a C&NW passenger depot.  He pondered the brick question and ultimately setteled on the DPM wall sections.  The modular ones.  He painstakingly cut all the pieces needed out of the small blank wall sections.  The brick is much more precise on the panels than on the downtown kits.  Better tooling.

It worked out that the DPM walls modeled four rows of brick for every five rows at prototype size.  This allowed the fine tooling to keep the proportion of brick to mortar line more in line with the appearance we're expecting.  Even if it's not truly prototypical in measurements.  A consistant clean brick wall is more important than scale size bricks, at least in this artistic sense!

[TrainCat2]

I had some white Guache so I did the first panel. Buffing just paused to paint to pull completely off so I opted to remove the excess paint with a Q-Tip and alcohol. It did did remove some of the paint, but on areas the I tried to remove all of the paint from the top of the bricks, I ended up removing it all. So I had to go back and re-apply dry bushing. Here is the before and after. So far I'm leaning to how I can vary the look of the brick w/o mortar. However, the test panel looks better in the photo than it does in my hand. LOL





I did get the second test panel ready to try the Roberts Mortar that arrives next Tues.

[tehachapifan]

I've always used concrete or off-white colored, water-based acrylic paint thinned down with water to create a wash, which wicks/capillaries into the motor lines nicely when the wall is lying flat. Takes a while to learn how to get the mixture right and sometimes it takes more than one application, but I find the results to be very good. About on par with the photo above where flour was used.

[TrainCat2]

I got my order of Roberts Brick Mortar and it was quite easy to use and the effect is pretty good. After the initial buffing, I had to go back with a barely damp cloth and rebuff twice to tone down all the white grout. You will need to use a knife blade to go into the corners of raised details to remove the excess mortar that accumulates there.

[peteski]

Yes, that looks very good.  Yes, we all know that in N scale structures the mortar lines are greatly exaggerated, but it just looks "rigth" to me. Like a real brick wall my brain expects to see.  Without contrasting mortar, the brick wall looks dull and not realistic to me.

Now that you tackled the mortar thing, next thing will be to figure out how to paint all the windows!  That is one thing I dread when building DPM kits.     But I think the windows are separate parts on your large buidling.

[TrainCat2]

Actually, Baileys Warehouse is DPM based with molded windows. Merchants Warehouse has separate windows.

[peteski]

Actually, Baileys Warehouse is DPM based with molded windows.

Good luck with that!   

Merchants Warehouse has separate windows.

[bbussey]

I airbrush Liquitex paint for the base brick color and highlight individual brick using Liquitex paint markers to get shade variation. Then I wash with Vallejo paints and wipe off with a damp cloth – Off White at full strength for the initial mortar application, then diluted London Gray to blend everything in. This subway portal has tiny bricks. Roughly 30% oversized of scale but 50% smaller than any commercially available N scale brick.