Last week (Feb.15) I saw a fantastic demonstration on applying decals to brick structures. Apparently my memory is being affected by my age,as I can’t recall where I saw this. It showed how the decal is lightly sanded to the point where it is very thin and can be depressed into the mortar lines, making it appear as though it is a painted and well aged sign on a brick building. Does anyone have info on this procedure? [?] It was a remarkable effect and warrants viewing again. Thanks in advance for your help. [8D]
Probably on DIY’s Working on the Railroad series. That is a technique that has been around a long time. The hard part is finding appropriate signs although there seems to be more available today than in the past via the internet. A digital imaged could easily be resized to fit your wall. You just take a fine grit sand paper and begin sanding both the front and back of the paper until you have a very thin sheet. Depending on how old and distressed you want the sign to be, you would take more off the front. If you want to represent a fairly new sign, do most or all your sanding on the back. Once you get the sign looking like you want, bru***he wall with a water and white glue mixture and position the sign on the wall. Once it is in place, brush on more glue/water mix. I first saw this technique demonstrated by George Selios and I believe he said he would use his fingernail to work the sign into each mortar line to give it a real painted on look.
A few days after this aired, somebody on this board posted a similar technique in which the sign was distressed with computer graphics before it was printed. That might be worth a try.
Thanks for that quick reply. As soon as I got it I realized that I did see it on DIY.
It’s sure great knowing a guy can get such great help from guys such as yourself. Many thanks. [8D] Where do you live? And what do you like best about the hobby? [:D]
I live in Ohio. I think the thing I like best about the hobby is that it is a time machine that can take me back to my youth.
If you want signs that look really aged, you’ll find that printing them on tissue paper, instead or regular computer paper, does an excellent job and saves a lot of sanding. You lay the printed sign on your building’s wall and apply diluted white glue carefully with a soft brush right over the face of the tissue. As the diluted glue saturates the tissue, all the brickwork beneath starts to show through and this effect will remain after the glue has dried. I’ve been using this technique recently on the buildings in the downtown, urban section of my layout’s main city.
CNJ831
CNJ, Thanks for your reply. Any tips on what type of tissue you refer to and how to get it through an EpsonPhotoRX500 printer? [?] [8D]
CNJ, do you tape the tissue paper to a regular sheet of paper? That would seem to me to be the only way to get it to feed a printer.
The tissue paper is the common kind used to wrap items for packaging (like you find packed with new shirts, etc.) and can be purchased at just about any store selling wrapping or gift materials. One purchase provides a lifetime supply.
As you guys suspected, the tissue needs to be taped to a regular sheet of printer paper to get safely through the machine. I tape all four sides tightly to avoid any mishaps. It’s a little noisy going through the printer but always comes out just fine. My printer happens to be a basic HP machine but I’m sure the process would work satisfactorily with any printer.
A word of advice here, print out the sign on a regular piece of printer paper first. Then cut out a piece of tissue only a little larger than the printed sign and place it directly over the printed sign, taping all the edges. Now run that through the printer again. Overly large pieces of tissue may tear, so don’t use much more than the actual sign’s outline requires if it is good-sized. Once the ink is dry, trim the sign along the edges. Then, lay it on to the wall section.
My applications have been with 40:60 white glue and water. When placed on the wall, you can only stroke the tissue sign a few times with the glue to set it. After that, the sign becomes too wet and will start falling appart. When applying the glue, you should immediately note the underlying brickwork appearing through the sign. A few, light, careful, strokes of the glue brush should produce this effect over the entire sign. Don’t worry if the brick doesn’t show through in a few small spots, this only makes the sign look more realistic. When dry, the sign retains the appearance of an old and faded sign with the brickwork showing through.Note that the technique works best on lighter colored walls
Bill;
Jecorbett is right, it is DIY, here’s the link:
http://www.diynetwork.com/diy/hb_collections/article/0,2033,DIY_13874_4158369,00.html
I have been DVRing them. John
You may want to check this technique:
Thanks to all for the responses on aged painted brick walls. The sites that were recommended were great. Thomas, Port Kelsey is a nice site and was most helpful. I have had decent success using the wrapping tissue method. I may try the onion skin paper, as it seems to be a little less fragile upon application. I have downloaded some great “posters” from the various sites and will be working with them soon. J.E. Keith from Germany has done some great work with this method and shared them with me. His work is quite nice. [8D]