I’m paving one area of my layout with Walther’s Cornerstone plastic brick streets; there seem to be plenty of articles on weathering brick WALLS but so far, I haven’t found anything about weathering brick STREETS. Do any of the talented modelers out there have some ideas for me? Thanks,
Karl Sonkin
Most brick streets that I remember didn’t look a lot different than walls, maybe use a little darker wash, but not a lot darker.
After rains have washed a street, they’d be quite normal brick wall looking. If it hadn’t rained for awhile, they might have looked darker from an accumulation of dirt. You could have places where the dirt had washed from the side of the road, across it, thus making a brown streak where the water had carried some dirt over the brick.
Good luck,
Richard
I will be weathering cobblestone sheets for some street-running track In preparation, I photographed some cobbles while my wife was shopping in one of those “trendy” areas, as I had nothing better to do. It was the waterfront district of Portland, Maine, so they were real, not something hauled in by developers.
There’s a lot of color variation, probably more than on a building. Individual bricks are stained differently, so consider a small brush and a variety of reds and browns. Also, the “mortaring,” for want of a better word, ranges from a light sandy tone to almost black, so think about doing several different mortar washes.
I would really try to do the weathering on the bench. The plastic is likely to be somewhat shiny, so at the very least it will need a spray of Dull-Coat. An India Ink wash would also be appropriate.
Interesting question, I can’t recall an article on weathering a brick street either. I’d probably start like I would a brick wall - spray it with a gray or lt brown to represent the mortar, then use an art marker to color the bricks a dark red. As noted, using a very fine brush to paint some bricks alternate shades of red and brown would be good. Then I’d apply some powdered charcoal with a stiff brush, and then go over it with a paper towel to remove much of the charcoal and leaving it in between the bricks. Then maybe use the charcoal and a brush to create “lanes” where the cars would normally drive, then seal it all in with spray of flat finish. After that, you could add other weathering (like the mud mentioned earlier) with chalk.
Before leaving Dayton, Ohio for western Colorado, I lived in St. Anne’s Hill historic district. In the late 80s the city repaved some streets near the district. Some still had the original brick pavers. They were larger than bricks used to build walls. They were a dark red/brown, with a glazed finish with very little mortar. I got several pickup loads and used them for sidewalks.
I have some of the Cornerstone brick streets. When I laid them I sanded the edge of the sections a little bit so that they fit closer together. If you lay them without doing that the the grove between sections is noticeably wide than the groves between the bricks.
For weathering I used a dark gray wash. Then I used my airbrush to add some black areas where grease would collect (at stop signs and after a bump in the road). Black and brown chalks can be used darken certain areas as well. Then I put on a layer of dull coat. The last step was to take a thin eraser and rub through the dull coat where the vehicle tire treads would usually run. (On a brick street the areas where the tires usually run is shinier than the rest of the street.) Then I took an almost dry thin black marker to put some tire scuff marks on the edge of the curbs and skid marks on the road.
Thanks. This sounds like a great strategy.
Karl
Micro-Mark and others sell sheets of cobblestone or brick that replicate street brick much more accurately than sheets of wall brick. Street brick were significantly larger than wall brick, and so were cobblestones.
I’m pretty sure that street brick did not use mortar either… they were just laid in place on a bed of sand/some other bedding material
Next time I go to my parents house there are still a few brick streets in their general vicinity I can take some pictures of it for you if you’d like
As a boy. I lived on a brick street and became very familiar with its construction when it was torn up and replaced with asphalt. The bricks were bedded in sand and no mortar was used. As an adult I watched the removal and replacement of “Belgian Block” (cobblestone) streets and again they were bedded in sand and no mortar was used.
Joe