Micro Mark Textured Brick Contact Paper

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

I just used this product on a scratchbuilt interlocking tower ( I will provide photos later when it is complete.) This product is made from real photos but has dimensional texture facilitated in the printing process for the mortar joints. It looks very real and is better than I could have painted, IMO. I have tried other brick papers that are one dimensional, but they did not look real to me.

  1. Is there a secret in getting it aligned? While it does not stick for good until you mat it down, if you pull it up, it will not stick as well the second time. The next time, I may try getting rid of the tackiness and glue it down with some adhesive so I have more time for alignment on the edges of the structure. I suppose I should have just cut a small part of the backing paper on the start end and rolled it back as I went along?

  2. It does not wear well on the edges as I handled my structure to cut my windows openings after affixing the brick paper to the walls. I was able to fix this to some extent by using ACC. Next time I might tack some drafting tape on the edges to protect it.

  3. I also noticed that not all the vertical mortar lines were in line. (I have actually seen this on the prototype.) I therefore used my pencil lines instead to mark vertical cuts. Pencil lines can be erased with an ordinary eraser without any harm to the surface of the paper. You have to use a very sharp, new blade when cutting this material. I found large quality scissors worked best for cutting the paper to size but used the knife for cutting out the window openings.

  4. It has a little gloss but I am confident that this can remedied by a very, very liberal amount of dull coat.

  5. I used a red brick that they have now discontinued. The only colors now are yellow and a weathered brick (more of a light brown). The weathered brick does hot have enough red for me. I didn’t have a problem with the new red brick as I knew that I could tone down the red brick with weathering c

2

Well, everything you said is just about what I would expect of brick contact paper.

3

I prefer to use styrene brick sheets. They provide accurate detail and are not fragile to handle. The mortar lines are consistent, and the sheets are self supporting. If you wish to add interior brick detail as for example inside a roundhouse or engine shop then a second layer can be added to the inside, but the second layer is not necessary for structural purposes alone. Painting is easy and there are several methods of accenting the mortar lines. Walthers has an excellent product and I personally think the cost is quite reasonable. Here is one example:

http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/933-3522

As somebody has already said, “just my [2c] worth”

Dave

4

My own advice to tone down a slight gloss of a paper product would be a light brushing of a powder, even fireplace ash, rather than spraying a liquid based product on it.

Dave Nelson