I have read several articles on adding the “grout” to brick buildings, but have not been really succesful at doing this myself. Does anyone out there have a favorite method / material they could share? I have a Signal Tower kit that is now just waiting for some “Grouting” to be finished.
Thanks
Jim
Grind up white chalk and rub it on.
What I am doing these days is using lightweight spackling compound (Red Devil) with a little grey paint (Ceramcoat) mixed in. The paint thins it out and makes the colors less stark. I rub it on, rub it in, rub it off as many times as it takes to make me happy. It’s cheap and not too runny. I just get the little 8 oz containers of pre mixed spackling and mix relatively small batches with paint for each job. I use lightweight spakling for a number of other things around the layout, and prefer the smaller sizes so it stays fresh.
Enjoy
Peter
conford
A WASH of white water base paint also fills indetations in the surface.
GROUT is white when new, turns grey with age, and becomes black in big coal fired cities such as Chicago.
Thanks for the tips. I think I will try a different method on each wall and see which I like best.
Jim
I have used both the chalk and the spackling compound. The best part about the chalk is that if you don’t like how part of it turns out, you can just wash it off.
I generally don’t add mortar to red brick buildings. When you look at a real building in an HO or N size, you rarely see the light gray mortar. And adding a wash of white tends to lighten the red bricks, making them look chalky and unrealistic.
However, I do add a black wa***o my tan brick buildings: it tones down the browns, making them look more realistic. And since here in the Midwest (what I model), most buildings were at least 75% “common” brick, I use the effect regularly.
Ray is quite correct. Unless a structure is positioned at the extreme edge of the layout, mortar lines would not likely to be visible at a similar distance from the viewer in the case of the prototype. For other than immediate foreground structures, motar lines, if evident at all, should be just vaguely visible unless the building is supposed to be brand new or areas of its brickwork have just recently been “pointed up”. Although rarely done in models, variations in the color of different bricks would be typically more evident than mortar lines.
CNJ831
I use a wash of gray or black paint, and have some tissue at hand to immediately wipe it off the surface of the bricks, leaving it in the cracks, though a little vertical streaking adds to the weathering. I also spot paint a scattering of bricks black or different shades of red.
Cheers,
Maureen
I use Delta Creamcoat craft paints. I brush on the paint, usually at full strength. The then wipe the brick surface off with a paper towel. And this is how it turns out:
Nick
Flour sprinkled on, wiped off with a fingertip and then dulcoated to set.
or… thinned 'off’white acrylic craft paint wash’n’wipe method.
the ‘white wash’ looked too heavy for me but I am quite happy with the results from the flour, thin lines, not overpowerig the brickwork and no chalkiness.
I have thought of using toothpaste but havent got around to trying it yet.
Have fun & be safe
Karl.
I use the flour method, too. I find it comes out a bit too white, so after the Dullcoat I give it a thin wash of India Ink. The first one is an IHC engine house kit, which has deep grooves and large bricks:
The second is a DPM, with much shallower mortar grooves:
Both of these are flash shots, which tend to over-brighten the mortar. They look better to the eye than to the camera.
Use toothpicks so you get and uneven looking grout… how it normally is.
I just tried my hand at grouting for the first time on a cheap old Bachmann snap together building. I used Poly Scale “Concrete” ever so slightly thinned. I was knocked out by the results. I’ll try to get a pic posted tomorrow.
Lionel Stang has a great techinique…flat white paint and water…let it dry and take fine wire wool to the building…always paint the building flat black, let it dry and paint it brick red or primer…when you take the steel/wire wool to it…it takes on several colors…