AgingPlastic Brick Walls

by Tom
(Michigan)

Attempting to take a plastic kit of 1890's building and paint the brick in an oldbrick color. Then create the mortar lines between the bricks.

How would I accomplish such? If someone knows how to show damage to the brick that would be very helpful.

SMH Responds You didn’t mention which scale you were working in so I will try to keep this in mind when offering suggestions.

Century-plus old buildings are not the easiest to model realistically and you need to keep the Three-foot rule in mind. It essentially says, that if a model or scene looks good from three feet away, it’s a good enough piece of work.

The first step is to formulate an approximate color. If the brick you are using is red, you may want to shade it, but from a grey plastic base I would apply a good coat of brick red acrylic mixed with 50% water. Next, you should pick out bricks for variation in color, first make a large section darker or lighter. To get an idea of how this should look, Google “1890s brick buildings and look at the Images.

Once the brick color has dried, get ready for the labor intensive part of this project, applying random INDIVIDUAL bricks with varied colors ranging from light grey to black to dark grey (see photo).

I use a thin brush to do the individual bricks and before they really dry, I wipe with a damp cloth to cut some of the contrast. If it still looks sort of garrish, I follow with a thin application of weathering powder only affter paint is dried.

Now let’s address the mortar issue. There are almost as many ways to do this as there are modelers. You will need to lay the wall horizontal. Mix together a light grey and white acrylic (mostly white) and thin it again with water. This time three parts water to one of the paint.

Using a fine brush pick up a drop of this mixture and apply to intersection of mortar lines. The paint should be thin enough that capillary action will carry it along the recessed lines. Repeat as needed. I seldom try to mortar all of the recesses (Refer to three-foot rule).

You will find a second mortar method here:

http://www.scale-modelers-handbook.com/b
rick-mortar.html