Tried out a new structure mortar method.

[Lemosteam]

I am at the stage where I wanted to complete some structures for the LIRR IS, so I began working on my two Wathers Parklane Terrace apartment structures. I painted the structures with Tamiya rattle cans first with some random colors.

I knew I couldn’t start any construction, till I decided how I would do the mortar.

I settled on white India Ink. I’m sure there are other colors, like an off white or gray, but this is what I had in hand.



Step one uses the stiffer brush to swirl/work the ink into the joints, but don’t let it dry too long. This model started as Tamiya gray primer.



Step two uses a plain tissue to wipe off the excess. Now the Walthers model has great brick relief for the mortar joints, so I’m not sure this will work with DPM structures or lower relief models.



The next section blends in, and if you let patches dry, they can be reactivated with fresh ink to tone them down.



Here is the whole wall complete. I really like the way the ink tones down the brick color after wiping off the excess.



Here is the second model. This was a grayish brown to start. I really like how this one turned out. All of the variations work well. And the base color was really surprising as opposed to the typical red brick.



Anyway, I thought I would share.

[kornellred]

Definitely believeable as is. Or, you could eventually treat some of the voids to make it even more awesome when the mood strikes you.  So little time - so much to do!

[Lemosteam]

Update. Tried the method on another building today. This is one of those Walthers shops with the concrete pillars and brick insets. Refined the process a little to allow the ink to dry before cleaning the brick faces. This time I used cotton swab sticks to clean the excess.

[spr1955]

Thanks for posting I was wondering how you did that, one of the best methods I have seen.

[peteski]

That looks really good John.  I wonder if one could mix some pigment/dye to the white ink to make it more mortar color (cream), or other colors?

I always thought that India Ink was supposed to be waterproof once dry. At least the black ink.  Maybe the white stuff is only India Ink in a name. Regardless, it works pretty good.  I wonder how it will work in models with very shallow and vaguely defined mortar lines (like DPM buildings).

[Mark5]

This is really an old method I think  I recall reading about this in RMC back in the 70s. Back then I used Polly-S concrete color in a similar manner.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Am I missing the brick color? Or have I gone color blind?

[Lemosteam]

Am I missing the brick color? Or have I gone color blind?

@spr1955 , thanks!

@peteski Thanks! I would think that other colors are available from the same manufacturer. I bought the white shown above at Hobby Lobby:

Maybe a brown and white mix.https://www.docmartins.com/collections/waterproof

@Mark5 the nice thing about the ink is it is very thin, and does not get sticky like paint would, so burnishing off the ink from the tops of the brick is pretty easy and does not discolor the base paint.

@Ed Kapuscinski Brick is a base coat of Tamiya grey primer, same as the apartments above.

[peteski]

@peteski Thanks! I would think that other colors are available from the same manufacturer. I bought the white shown above at Hobby Lobby:

Maybe a brown and white mix.https://www.docmartins.com/collections/waterproof

That sure presents many possible color mixes!  So the ink is waterproof, but it can still be removed (when not fully set?) with water?

[Lemosteam]

That sure presents many possible color mixes!  So the ink is waterproof, but it can still be removed (when not fully set?) with water?

Yes. The first examples above were wiped before fully dry. It wiped off with a just tissue.

The last after fully dry, and I used medical stick swabs (tightly wound cotton).

[Mark5]

@Mark5 the nice thing about the ink is it is very thin, and does not get sticky like paint would, so burnishing off the ink from the tops of the brick is pretty easy and does not discolor the base paint.

That's good to know! Back then, with PollyS the thing was to thin it down when using it this way.

With this stuff even easier!

Mark

[Lemosteam]

Ok so I picked up a bottle of the Sepia color.mixed it at around 1.5 white and 0.5 to sepia. It was a nice mortar color as we thought. It looks great with the red brick on the left. The right is the red brick with the white mortar.



This is the white with dark brown brick on top and light brown brick below, providing a nice contrast on both.



The grayish mortar washed out completely in the dark brown, and is barely noticeable on the light brown. I think it really would have looked good on the light gray brick.



What neat about this process is the level of burnishing on the brick can help one range from a pure brick red to one of those glazed bricks with the white portions on them. Same with the white on the gray brick.

Looking at the pics though, it seems that I need to try harder to rid the mortar joints of tiny bubbles.

[peteski]

Yes, it gives a nice variation of the mortar color.