In-ko-pah RR: Brick building

[Ray Dunakin]

I've started a new building for the town of Mineral Ridge, on my In-ko-pah Railroad. This is my first attempt at modeling a brick building. I'm using Sintra PVC foam board, and scribing the brick pattern. I began by cutting out the front wall from 6mm thick Sintra, and drawing the door and window openings with pencil. This must be done lightly so as not to leave indentations that will mar the brick pattern:

To scribe the horizontal lines, I made a special tool out of brass. Two pieces of .020" thick brass strips were soldered onto opposite sides of a square brass rod:

Another simple tool was made from a strip of .020" brass, for scribing the vertical lines. (I call it scribing, but on these short lines I'm really just pressing the tool into the material.)

Here are a couple shots of the entire front wall, after the basic brick pattern has been scribed. There are some goofs that will need to be patched up with putty. Also, the top portion of the wall will be built up with layers of thinner scribed PVC for a 3D effect:

I used 3mm board to build up the decorative upper portion of the wall:

I still have to add more layers to create the trim at the top edge of the wall, but here's how it looks so far:

And here it is set in place on the layout, to give you an idea of how this building will look in its environment:

There will be stone arches above the door and window openings on the ground floor, and stone lintels on the second story windows. To create these, I will be casting resin stone blocks. I started by carving the masters from 3mm Sintra. Here they are laid out and ready to pour the silicone rubber mold:

While I was at it, I also carved some blocks which will be used on my next building:

That's all for now, more later. Enjoy!

 

[bazzer42]

Fair play Ray, you are a master. That does look good.

 

[viaEstrecha]

Lovely work - you must have the patience of a saint to scribe that lot! I scribe with a bradawl and my hands end up like claws after a few minutes, so I think I'll have to borrow your tip and make a more suitable tool.

 

[Ray Dunakin]

Here's a brief update: I finished the fancy trim on the top edge of the wall:

This is supposed to represent a pretty old, run-down building, so I've also started distressing some of the bricks:

Still have more distressing and aging to do, but this gives you some idea of where I'm headed.

 

[Martino]

Really superb Ray. Very well done.

 

[playmofire]

Outstanding work and attention to detail.

 

[ge_rik]

Excellent work. Really effective.
Not come across sintra board before. Looks like a useful material.

Rik

 

[Steve]

Incredible work real eye for detail

 

[peterbunce]

Hi Rik,

Sintra board is the American name for PVC solid foam sheets; I use those for the majority of my buildings, over the last 10 or so years (the others are from plastic corrugated board). It is totally inert and stands up to the weather very well, if you van use masonry paint on it, B&Q used to sell march pots but they have stopped them ! Grr.

I use Evostick to glue it together, it can be cut on a small circular saw or a frtesaw, or with a heavy 'Stanley' type knife; drill small holes at the corners of the intending cut line to transfer the corner locations.

There are at least two densities of the board by the way, the softer style does not have the strength of the heavier style, but is easier to cut! More internal bracing should assist in keeping it in order.

Vekaplan is a harder stiffer version, but do ensure that both sides are semi-matt finish: they also sell it with one side being a gloss finish - that is very hard, and not needed.

Yours Peter.

 

[Ray Dunakin]

Time for another update: I needed a tool to press the mortar lines into the edges of the window openings, so I just took an old #11 blade and ground it flat:

I also carved more wear into some of the bricks. The loose brick was created by gluing a thin wedge to the face of the scribed brick:

The side walls of this building would have been made of cheaper material such as rubble stone, so I scribed stone texture into the upper portion of the walls. To see a step-by-step of this technique, check out my previous build here: http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/IRR_Mineral_Ridge_1.html On the east wall, only a small portion of the wall will be visible above the previous building:

My next building will probably be only a single story, so I had to texture a large portion of the west wall of this building:

I added stone lintels to the upstairs windows. The thin ones at the bottom of the windows are resin castings. I had hoped to use existing castings for the large ones above the windows, but they were a bit too tall. So I just carved some new ones out of Sintra PVC specifically for this building:

The bottom of the front wall wall is stone, so I glued on some of the resin castings I'd made for my previous building. On the right, the castings have been cut to fit the sloping sidewalk:

I also glued some castings to the foundation. Eventually all the "stone" parts of the building will be painted the same sandstone color as the previous building:

The front and side walls were glued together and the subfloor installed. Then I discovered that the foundation is slightly non-square, preventing the building from fitting up tight against the sidewalk. No big deal, I'll just fill the gap later:

Here's how it all looks so far, with the building temporarily in position on the layout:

That's all for now, more later. Enjoy! .

 

[Ray Dunakin]

I forgot to include this...
Here's a small, "quick and dirty" test piece I did last year when I was first considering using Sintra to simulate brick:

As you can see it looks a lot better after it's painted.

 

[beavercreek]

Absolutely superb Ray...but you know that already.
Good to have a masterclass so that we can attempt some way towards the standard of your creation.

 

[Richie]

Fantastic work once again Ray brick work looks so real

 

[Ray Dunakin]

I've finished the roof and rear wall, using the same design as described on my previous build. The rear wall is removable for access to the interior, and is not detailed because it will be positioned against a cliff:

I also built two box-like structures to contain the interior details. These slide out of the main structure:

I had planned to use resin "stone" castings over the window and door arches. However, when I laid them out on the model, it just didn't look right to me. So I went with Plan B -- brick arches. These were made from 1mm thick Sintra PVC, scribed, cut to shape and glued into place:

I've started building the frames for the windows and door. So far only the most basic part of the frames has been done, using .080" x .125" strips of styrene. There are still more details to be added. Here they are temporarily fitted into the building:

Because this building is supposed to be rundown and weathered, I scribed some woodgrain into the styrene strips prior to cutting them to fit. The curved part was made by bending one of the strips around a small saucepan, then heating it by holding it above the electric burner on our stove:

Here's a shot of the building temporarily in position on the foundation:

I also screwed something up... My first attempt at scribing the bricks at the forward edge of the side wall was a complete disaster. The red putty used to smooth the joint crumbles when scribed, and the joints tend to cause the scribing tool to go off course. I think it would have worked better if I'd used an epoxy putty. Also, I goofed up the spacing of the mortar lines. I'll have to put some more thought into this before making another attempt.

.

 

[Ray Dunakin]

I've finished the doors and windows for the ground floor. The doors were built up from strips of .020" styrene. although it's not visible in the photo, the doors and frames all have simulated wood grain. The door handles will be added after the doors are painted:

.

 

[Ray Dunakin]

I finished building the frames for the upstairs windows. Here's one of them:

Then I decided it would be fun to have an old air conditioner hanging out one of the windows. I was inspired by this building in Tonopah, NV:

The air conditioner I modeled is meant to be older and has a simpler design. It will also function as a vent for the structure, to equalize the interior air pressure and prevent build up of humidity:

Here's how it turned out. I still have to add the glass:

I had wanted to paint the AC a color other than white, and this yellowish-tan was the only thing I had on hand. I'm not sure it's the best choice but it'll do. Adding the bird poop, rust and grime was fun. .

 

[trammayo]

Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant! You never fail to amaze Ray.

 

[3Valve]

?Superb stuff. OK I now need to go lie down and take this all in. Wow.

 

[Ray Dunakin]

More progress... I'm finally getting to the fun part: painting! I started by coating the exterior of the building with the same concrete-colored exterior latex paint that I used on my previous building:

Then I made a couple small, flat stamps out of scraps of Sintra PVC. The larger one is about .5" x 1.75". The smaller one is about 5/8" long and less than an half inch wide:

I used a paint brush to apply a thin layer of paint to the face of the stamp. Then I press it down onto the brick surface. The paint sticks to the raised face of the bricks, defining their shape. The smaller stamp was used to get into narrow places:

Obviously it doesn't cover everything, especially on the "decayed" bricks, and so there is a lot of touching up that has to be done using a fine brush. Still, it beats painting each brick one by one.

Here's a close up shot of the bricks after touching up:

The upper portion of the side walls has a small section of bricks which will be visible above the adjoining buildings. As you may recall, I had used automotive spot putty to smooth the joints, which caused problems when I tried to scribe the lines using the custom tools I made. What I ended up doing was using a carbide tipped metal scribe, and going over it fairly lightly to avoid crumbling the putty. The photo below shows how it turned out. It's not great but it'll do. It'll look better after I touch up the paint in the mortar lines do a few other little things:

Here are a couple shots of the building in progress, setting on the foundation:

More to come... Enjoy!

 

[tramcar trev]

Ray, your method of painting the bricks is truly brilliant. An amazing idea; I hope you will be flattered if I imitate it in due course.....
I have tried painting the joints then painting the lot and wiping over to leave the joints cement coloured with indifferent results.
I'll do it your way......