I had to make a trip over to our states illustrious capitol this afternoon (Trenton) for those of you who do not know New Jersey. Well Trenton is a very old city and was once a very prosperous, thriving industrial hub of the country back in the 1900’s was it’s hay day I would guess. There is still a Delaware river bridge that has the slogan “Trenton Makes”- “The World Takes” in use today. A sad reminder of what once was is about all it is. Well while driving through the city on my way to and from my destination like any model railroader worth his salt I am observing all of the rail served structures of the past some of which have been restored to house mini malls and indoor flea markets and other sorts of modern day retail venues but for the most part a great number of them are merely awaiting the wrecking balls. Most of these structures big and small have many if not all of their windows broken out, the corrugated tin roofs are rusted out and missing in spots and many I noticed are even missing bricks and not just one or two but a significant amount, enough that one could notice it while driving by at 65mph. So I started to think who would one model that missing masonry etc. So my question is how do you guys do it. Any sort of old weathered buildings or abandoned ones for that matter.
As always thank you in advance for any how to advice and or your contributions.
Powder! I got two sets of chalks from the art supply place. One has 36 colors and the other is a bunch of gray to black. A little sand paper and a stiff brush…instant soot, or mold, or rust.
Old paint or rust chips can be made using rubber cement as a mask, then peeling it off after painting.
You can cut out the brick or block, or even melt it with an old wood burning iron (for steel) and then paint, dry brush, and or powder to make this look like old broken wall. Remember to place some rubble in the area too. Most concrete has re bar in it, so make your hole then place some fine wire strands in it, paint them to look rusty/black and even have a chunk of cement hang on one.
Check out this thread
http://cs.trains.com/TRCCS/forums/t/187306.aspx
for some of the finest brick building modeling I have ever seen. i believe this modeler uses hydrocal castings of masters he makes himself. It is very hard and perhaps not possible to replicate that look with brick sheets of styrene. there are some brick products from Europe that are a sort of thin foam that you could shave away that might enable you to capture the look of deterioration and poor tuck pointing that you see here. Note in particular that this modeler has NOT emphasized the mortar lines.
For broken windows I like to use … broken glass! more particularly at a science surplus store I bought a supply of glass slide covers: extremely thin glass squares, a little smaller than postage stamp size. In fact I use those slide covers rather than plastic for most of the windows on my structures – there is something about glass that reflects light in a realistic way that plastic cannot quite capture. Snapping a glass slide cover results in a realistic broken glass look – but of course, BE CAFEFUL with your fingers and make sure to pick up all the small fragments (a piece of duct tape turned sticky side out on a finger tip helps).
When you look at a run down old building your impression is a certain uniformity of shade and color. Thus even at the cost of capturing the exact prototype colors, find some way to paint things in a way that conveys this same impression. For example if the brick is dark red/brown, maybe lintels and other concrete details should have a tiny hint of red/brown in the paint rather than a pure concrete color. Likewise perhaps fire escapes and fire prevention standpipes should have a slight amount of red/brown in the paint rather than pure black paint. This shading might also be accomplished with weathering powde
This company specializes in that look.
http://www.downtowndeco.com/id167.htm
Thank you both for the links, gave me some good ideas to work with
There are some other plaster kit makers out there. Perhaps the best known is Thomas Yorke. His HO kits are a OOP but very nice. Most of his stuff is rural but very nice detail and design. The Sonora store, the Feed store as well as the Bordello are classics from Yorke. His stuff is on Ebay often.
Some other makers with great brick detail include:
CC Crow
CIbolo Crossing
You might also try old Magnusson and Lytler and Lytler kits for more urban settings. These are resin/plastic kits.
Guy