I found where I put my stack of stamped bricks. This is what they look like when they are finished. These are about 3" by 5". Between paint, hair dryer and drywall compound, I can make these things super quick.
They ain’t perfect but what brick wall is? I’m sure I could sand the edges straight and put them together on railroad board with a few support splines glued on back, fill the joint with more drywall compound and you wouldn’t even be able to tell it’s more than one piece put together. I’ll have to try that sometime and see.
Problem is that for anything larger than a garden shed, a brick wall built that way would be weak for the amount of material used, and prone to damage from settlement or environment.
First: I encourage everyone who’s contemplating this type of work to read up on the actual theory and practice of structural vs. veneer construction. Pay PARTICULAR attention to the various types of bond (which manifest as different patterns of end vs. side dimensions in the visible pattern). The “sideways” bricks act to hold the lengthwise courses together. A wall made entirely with bricks laid sideways will have little resistance to a number of forces. See this introduction to different types of bond (the kind TF is using is ‘header bond’ when the overlap in successive courses is exactly ½ brick width)
I wish I could show the pictures that Kevin was requesting because they show how a real brick wall is laid. You start with a level foundation, whether this involves breaking bricks or using other material to achieve it, and you then establish a ‘movable’ level reference by putting up ‘story poles’ (which have a levelable base an
You are always such a treat and that’s all I have to say about that[(-D]
I’ve been in construction for over 35 years and there is more than one way to do anything and do it right to last and that’s all I have to say about that[(-D]
But we ARE trying to build a roundhouse that looks like it would stay up using the structural brick construction that would have been used for that type of relatively tall wall.
(NOTE that this is only a matter of verisimilitude: the methods TF describes for making the walls, and the idea behind them, are still valid, and I for one appreciate his willingness to provide them here.)
What this suggests is that we look to see if there IS substantial use of fascia brick in roundhouse construction (probably in the last generation of steam structures?)
I don’t even know why I’m doing this. I do believe this thread is about examples of simulating brick for modeling. Basically we create cosmetics with the seeing is believing factor. It’s a hobby and a very enjoyable one at that, until someone along the way puts it to rocket science[(-D]
But since you did go to college and you do want to factor in prototypical practices of erecting a brick wall correctly.
You did forget your wall ties
And your weep cord
[:-^]
I don’t think your wall would hold up for very long with all that condensation moisture, expansion and contraction behind the wall with no tie backs to secure it properly or weep cord for the moisture to escape not to expand the wall out[swg]
For now I’ll continue to keep things simple gathering ideas from others and sharing things that I know. It’s what makes this forum fun. I think that’s how it’s suppose to work around here[;)]
You must not have been reading the part about reinforcement in the mortar lines, but that’s OK. You did point out that any internal reinforcement is invisible in a model, which is the take-home – I did think that style of wall tie was more common in veneer walls than structural brick, which was the thing I was discussing.
Meanwhile, of course a proper cavity wall will have wicking. Again the visual effect of this in HO scale is vanishingly small (and come to think of it, I don’t see it in your samples[}:)]) so you might want to provide a couple of pictures of proper wicking in different types of construction to guide modelers – I’m all for verisimilitude in detailing.
TF: I love your brick roller walls. I have used oven bake clay for all kinds of press-molding but never rolled it out, yours look fantastic.
When we finally see pictures of Overmod’s layout, I am sure it will make anything built by Ben King look like an silly attempt at modelling.
In the meantime, I am happy if the finished product looks good from 18 inches away. If anyone ever breaks out a Starrett surface guage to measure the individual courses of my HO scale bricks, they will be escorted out of the house.
I believe I have mentioned there is a reason I rarely invite model railroaders over to see my layout(s).
You’re welcome. I did not post with the intention of getting into any kind of war, and i think will modify some text in the relevant posts to establish this more clearly.
I have seen many fine examples of your modeling through the past years. I’ve always really admired your fine craftsmanship on your custom paint and decaling of your freight cars. Your bench work methods in that one thread of yours dropped my chin to the floor[Y]
Meanwhile I wonder how many of the brick sheet products actually incorporate structural bonding – it ought to be easy to adapt TF’s ‘stampcrete’ approach to produce other bonds – or to allow easy cutting of ‘one row’ of bricks from a stamped sheet, say one of the ones pictured, to get a header course, and tremie one of these rows in every, say, six rows of a conventional running-bond sheet. This will get you American bond of any degree just by picking the number of running courses, and adjusting the relative height of the mortar lines would be a cinch.
My approach to walls involved wrapping a ‘reverse mold’ sheet around a roller and approximating the roll use in stampcrete paving; you have to turn the roller diameter precisely so the pattern of the ‘mold’ sheet will line up correctly – I never did get to where the ‘measured’ diameter was quite right. (I also spent considerable time messing with the ridges at the join line, which in hindsight was ridiculously obsessive compared with just tooling the join lines deeper to match!)
I did not think to use clay; I used vinyl high-strength spackling compound backed up by fiberglass mesh and arranged a straightedge to keep the roller lined up, and ‘fences’ either side of the plaster sheet to roll it out to consistent thickness before ‘stamping’. I think TF’s material (he’s using oven-bake clay with fiber reinforcement, right?) is likely to be easier, and some of the techniques evolved for full-scale stampcrete ought to be applicable for getting pattern repeats over large areas…
When I was in college (quite a few decades ago) I worked for a contractor a couple of summers and actually laid some brick walls. Before then, I couldn’t believe buttering and tapping could possibly produce the geometrical regularity that every brick structure depends upon. But you know what they say…“learn by doing”.
But I digress…this discussion has been fascinating and illustrative.
The prototype boiler house I am modeling was built by the CNJ in 1911 next door to the roundhouse built in 1879. From the existing photos I have been able to make out that both used the “Common” or “American” bond because with contrast enhancement and good magnification, I can make out 5 rows of stretchers between rows of headers.
To the best of my ability I’m seeking an historical diorama approach to this compact facility layout and its structures so I’ll have to check Walthers or Evergreen or other commerical material but I don’t think they offer five over one stretcher/header material.
In any case, I’ll have to stew on this a bit to determine how to proceed. It was fascinating to see the availability of individual scale bricks referenced above via an eBay link although fascinating, I don’t think I’ll go there!!
Anyway, many, many thanks to you all for really illuminating this issue for me!
That is sheer genius, and I am kicking myself for not even thinking of that method on that substrate.
Even a photo of brick could be scanned out as a raster to get reasonable results…
I’d be tempted to get a couple of these, seal the wood carefully, and then make reverse molds of all or part for TF-style stamped molding… just don’t sell the castings in competition; those guys deserve their profit margin.
Well, my basswood brick material arrived from Monster Modelworks/Larkspur today and they are beautiful. Have any of you used their sheets in a scratchbuilt structure? The “sheets” are really walls unto themselves because they appear to be high quality basswood and are 1/8 in. thick, which is great for structural strength, but here’s a problem – making wall pilasters.
At first, I thought I’d just slice a section as wide and long as the pilaster and glue it atop the wall to create the pilaster, much as I have seen done with sucessive layers of styrene brick. However, the Larkspur bricks and mortar lines are probably near prototypically thick and deep, so on edge, the sheet shows at least 3/32 in plain, smooth wood.
If you look at my avatar picture of the CNJ roundhouse behind the camelback, you’ll see exactly what I’m trying to create.
I suppose I could take a strip of the basswood brick sheet and carefully carve mortar lines and brick rows into the smooth “sides” of the pilasters, but I’m afraid I’d never be able to match the precision lines of the laser cut Larkspur sheets.
Any suggestions? Do you think that using some syrene brick sheet material to “layer” on pilasters would work? If that’s the case it might be smarter to just do the whole thing in styrene brick but that means duplicating the sunk cost (~$20) of the wood sheets. I’d like to find a solution before I start cutting into the Larkspur material.
I’d guess that the brick detail on plastic pilasters will be noticeably different than that on the very nicely-done wood sheets. You may be able to cut pilaster material from the wood sheet, then thin it somewhat using sandpaper, but you’d still need to scribe mortar lines on the edges.
Despite the great appearance of those sheets, I’ve not been all that enthusiastic about using wood for anything on my model railroad since discovering styrene building materials.
I’d do your roundhouse using styrene brick sheets and pilasters, and save the wood-version brick for another structure that won’t need pilasters. If you use some of the Tichy or Grandt Line windows and doors made for use in masonary, in the laser-etched wood, you could still create a contest-quality model that could also be placed front & centre on your layout.
While this would, of course, require an additional outlay, I’m sure that you’ll need other structures besides that roundhouse, so the money spent on the wood version wouldn’t be lost, but merely re-allocated for another project.
What happens if you make a carefully aligned double 45-degree inside miter to form the ‘box’ of the pilaster and then a butt joint at proper depth, also carefully aligned, with the ‘wall’ sheet? That should give you brick ‘all the way’…
