I dont know if this is ‘old hat’ or not but here goes anyway.
I have always wanted to put mortar lines on my buildings but when I try using thinned paint (acrylic, waterbasted, testors…) I always end up with an appearance of chalky bricks, washed out walls and really not very prominent mortar lines. I’ve tried all different paints, methods, colours and thinness, even sheetrock mud and spackling all to no avail. In my quest for a solution I came up with flour.
Yes ordinary baking flour (no I dont know if its self raising)
Application…Step 1 :- Apply the flour liberally with a cottonbud in a circular motion ensuring all lines are filled.
Clean up … Step 2 :- Lightly blow off access flour. ( now you wall will look like mine did with paint, all chalky and washed out.) Use an exacto and gently scrape the flour from the window frames, cornices and any other corner where it will accumulate, blow off the little flour balls this produces. Lightly wipe a fingertip accross the bricks, this will remove any chalkyness from the brick face but leave the flour in the mortar lines. If you remove too much flour just reapply, it takes seconds to do.
(this sounds like a lot but I just did the new walters passenger station in 10 mins start to finish, unassembled)
Finishing off… Step 3 :- Apply a light coat of dullcoat to set the ‘mortar’ (it will seem to disappear when wet but then reappear when dry) If you need a little more mortar when dry just repeat the process from step 1.
Here are some pics to illustrate.
I forgot to add, one BIG advantage is that if you err, or just dont like th
Aways used massively thinned acyrlic paint - but I’m gonna have to try this. As you say, if I don’t like a quick dunk in water makes it go away. Can’t beat that!
And what’s wrong with a 5/0 brush with half of the bristles removed and six months to do one wall? JUST KIDDING
I spray the wall with the color that I want the morter to be and then wipe it of with toilet paper, don’t use Kleenex as it isn’t strong enough. Here’s an example:
Timing of this great tip could not be more perfect. I started a structure-building project this weekend and needs one more coat of paint before I set in the mortar effect. I was going to go with a thinned out mixture of 50:50 white latex paint with water, but I will have to try your flour method, it looks easier and I love the ability to start over if I don’t like the results.
Karl:
Great idea, I have actually used talcom powder on buildings, but regular flour works well too. Also, I have used this same idea for snow scenes. A light dusting of baking flour or baby powder looks great. In fact it makes the scene look cold, I like the talcom or baby powder because of the despenser. You could also use a sifter to spread the flour for snow scenes. After application I have used Dulcote, also I have used just a clear coat spray, it’s big can.
I know this is nothing new, but I put together the Woodland Scenic Water Tank, the barrel part is real wood. I choose two ways to stain the wood. I have used Floquil stains and they work great, but I tried staining marker pens, both on the water tower as well as some wood structures, and wow. They come in a variety of stains, and simple to use, no brushes, no thinner, no clean up; just pull of the top and stain the wood, like using a magic marker. Minwax comes to mind.
Rob,
WTRR
Hub City Division
Karl:
I forgot to add, I have also used sheet rock mud. Use a clean spatula, smooth it on the brick, one might want to practise first, do a very thin layer let it dry, then using a damp cloth gently rub over the surface to remove the powered dry look. If you bare down enough withe the spatula you will actually scrape off enough of the mud and leave just a little residue.
Rob
WTRR
Hub City Division
Silver spike, if your buildings are already assembled, which it sounds like they are (but I may be wrong) use the process on one wall at a time and leave face up to dry… I discovered that when doing a constructed building and then applying doesnt work, I guess it didnt like the vertical surfaces.
You are correct, the walls are all assembled I just glued them together a few days ago. I will be sure to keep the walls face up while applying and drying one at a time.
Sounds like a great idea. I too have not had good luck with thinned paint. However, a word of caution on buildings already assembled… If the building has windows with some form of glazing, the Dullcote will make them instantly frosted.
I found this out the hard way when I was younger on a building which I detailed the interior…
George V.
A few well-placed pieces of masking tape should protect areas from unwanted overspray of Dullcote.
I think I’ll be trying UKGuy’s flour technique on a fully assembled roundhouse (I bought it already assembled several months ago). I’ll just mask over the parts I want to keep clean of Dullcote.
I too have used the thinned acrylic grey-wash. Although, there are some “chalky” areas, with grey color, they look more natural than a white wash. I’ve also found the brick to clean up very nicely with a very slightly damp paper towel. It seems far lees work than the flour.
Tom, i was going to use talc but there wasnt any in the house, flour was my second choice but it turned out well for me.
Possibly Chip, although the other thing I dont like about the paint, and especially the joint compound/spackling methods are the mortar to brick ratio. Even if you do clean off the brick faces successfully I find that the mortar lines are far too thick (approx half or one third the thickness of the bricks).
Maybe its me doing it wrong, maybe I’m too critical of my previous results but you will notice that the mortar in my above pics is very thin but well defined, more in scale than any of my other results. As I said maybe my technique was lacking previously but the time I personally was spending to get a less than satisfactory(for me) result I wasnt happy with.
This is just another option I found and wanted to share, the other methods just didnt work for me. If it helps just one guy I’ll be happy, I know it wont suit everybody, just trying to help out.
