Experiments in weathering brick paper and other building features

[Dr.Glum]

Hello Builders and Scenery Makers,

 

I've never weathered anything before, so I've looked in this Forum and not found a great deal about treating brickwork. I tried to search RMweb3 using the Google facility at the bottom of the home page, but the hits it found were all with RMweb.co.uk/community/addresses which is RM4, so I don't know what I did wrong. Instead I went through the entire Weathering Forum in RM3, where the items of interest were almost exclusively about textured surfaces, not brick paper. (Rather than search on 'weathered brick' I've just searched on 'Scalescene' and turned up a lot of useful hits. Doh!)

 

Of course, there is still John of Scalescenes inspirational notes and pictures in his South Oak Road site: see http://scalescenes.com/southoakroad/

 

So I'll go ahead with my post as it's ready anyway, and it will be in the Weathering Forum where you might look for it. It just illustrates my blunderings and it may encourage some other posts.

 

The impetus for this post is the structures I'm putting on the scenery module that I've described in http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php/topic/8855-scenery-module-with-roadways-workshops-and-underbridges-oo/

 

I've read about the possibilities of using weathering powders, chalks, crayons, sprays and soluble pencils. All I had to hand were these two packs of Carrs powder (bought some years ago, so don't know if the contents on sale now are different)

and am using the muds on my 'ground' and roads (not illustrated here). The makeup brush set was a 50p offer in Boots. I've only used the stiff small one so far.

 

I am making some derelict walls using Scalescenes aged brickwork, so I wanted to add stains and the 'green' of permanently damp walls. When we went to see some friends who have children I naturally asked if they used chalks or crayons and ended up stealing (I mean borrowing) the little girl's Pebbles Inc dab-it-on chalks set. "She won't miss it for a bit", says Mum. I believe it was bought at a silly reduced price in W.H.Smith's (where such stuff occasionally turns up on clearance, apparently).

The back of the tin says 'Basic brights'.

 

A bulldog clip on a handle is provided for using one of three sizes of pom poms (cottony puff balls). Dab on the pallet and dab/drag across the brick paper. I found it quite controllable. If you over-do it, wipe with a finger or kitchen paper.

 

The first photo shows the inside of a component of a derelict building. I used a bit of browns and black, with some green at the bottom of the walls.

 

The next photo is the outside of the same partial building. Mainly browns low down where muck has splashed up from the pavement. (The old signage was painted with very dilute enamels using a No.0 brush. (Thinners doesn't affect Epson ink-jet ink, water does.) The first 'coat' was very dilute Phoenix concrete, the second was the same, but corrected leaning verticals and wobbly letter thickness. The third was even-more-dilute white to make further corrections and a few highlights.)

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The following image shows (LHS) a section of damp wall and (RHS) a wall that will run alongside a pavement (upper two thirds will be visible).

I overdid the green at first, but rubbed some off and toned it down with browns. It doesn't look much on one section, but I'm hoping that it'll make a difference when all the sections are in place.

 

All the pieces shown have been sprayed with Letracote 104 which darkened the brick and reduced the colouring that I had added (that's what happens, according to RM3). Net result: I can't tell if I've been too subtle. But I'm a firm believer in 1) "less is more" and 2) "if you can't do it well, leave it off/out". The spraying added an unexpected slight white/dusty finish to the pieces. I can live with that.

 

What I wasn't satisfied with was the tops of the walls. I had used the lightest of the Carrs mud shades to create the effect of dusty partially mortared bricks. I couldn't get enough colour to stick to the painted card: I began to regret painting the wall tops with Humbrol no.70 (brick colour?) as it is too rich for this situation. Ironically, the look improved once I sprayed the varnish layer, but it still wasn't right.

Wall tops: not easy to photograph to let you see what I'm on about.

 

Right, have another go. A rake through the box of humbrol paints turned up two old tins, nos.94 and 71, both a middling earth colour. I tried the darker one, no.94. I had a glass pot (ex-marmalade sampler jar) with a few brush fulls of thinners, then got a bit of raw paint with a no.3 brush and dabbed in the thinners, wiped on the wall of the pot, then 'stippled' some in place. In a couple of places I dared a tiny spot of raw paint onto the wall, swirled the brush around in the thinners, then worked the spot out a bit with the brush.

That's more like what I had envisaged. Though I've got to admit I'm thrashing about here!

 

So what do you brick weatherers think?

Cheers, Tony

[Oldddudders]

 

I am making some derelict walls using Scalescenes aged brickwork, so I wanted to add stains and the 'green' of permanently damp walls. So what do you brick weatherers think?

I'm no brick weatherer, but your walls remind me of the derelict arches in fields just by the A5, north of Edgware, where the ill-fated Bushey Heath extension would have been built, had it not been for Hitler and the subsequent Green Belt legislation. I think that says it all - big tick!

[wiggoforgold]

How did I miss this when it was first posted?

The walls look really good, they really do capture the look of derelict brickwork. The problem I have found with printed brickwork (not apparrent in your photos) is a lack of releif and a slight sheen. In one of his books (Miniature Building Consruction I think) John Ahern suggested putting the printed sheet face down on a textured surface like coarse sandpaper, and rubbingg across the back of the sheet to impart some relief to the surface. I suspect he was using Merco and Hamblings brick papers which were on thinner paper than the Scalescenes papers, so I don't know how well the technique would translate.

[newcastle_central]

Some very nice work. Demonstrates that with care some great results can be achieved with brick papers.

 

Jonathan

[Oldddudders]

I suspect he was using Merco and Hamblings brick papers which were on thinner paper than the Scalescenes papers, so I don't know how well the technique would translate.

Presumably the nature of the Scalescenes product means that you can print it on to paper of any thickness that your printer wil tolerate, thus enabling the Ahern technique you describe?

[Dr.Glum]

Thank you for the kind comments, Gentlemen.

 

Progress has been slow as I'm not confident in what I'm doing. The image below is of the inside of a wall that is to be the front of two bombed-out houses that had cellars. These walls have been made safe by levelling off. The cut-outs are where the front doors were, and will be bricked up later. Now the cellars are open to the air, and damp.

The brick paper is Scalescenes aged brick. I'm not happy with the shade of green for the damp patches, but that's the nearest I have in the chalk box. The vertical green patches correspond to where remnants of internal walls will be added. The next image gives a hint of how the finished structure will look. The internal walls are only resting in place: they won't glue them in place until final assembly.

 

Next is one of the cellars that had been 'habitable' with whitewashed walls. I first tried white chalk and acheived a reasonable effect (not shown). Unfortunately, when I then spray varnished the item, the white effect mostly dissappeared. So I tried to wash on a very dilute layer of enamel paint. Disaster! Firstly there wasn't enough white pigmant to make any aprreciable difference, but secondly (and worse) I was far too liberal brushing on the thinners and the surface started to swell. All I could do was use a dry brush to try and remove any obvious brush strokes and the excess 'wet', and let it dry overnight.

 

Next day, the swelling had gone down, but there was a shiny patch on the surface. It is possible that I had either brought some of the glue stick glue throught the wet paper by my brushing, or there had been a reaction between the Letracote varnish and the thinners. Either way, maybe I wouldn't have to either strip of a rectangle of brickpaper or add bracing to pretend that the bulge in the wall was 'real'.

 

I tried again with a much stronger enamel to thinners ratio and magically obtained the effect you see below. The previously shiny area is where the paint wash has 'taken' less.

Now of course that's the effect I was trying for! (What a load of 'they're round and they bounce'.) So that's all for now.

Cheers, Tony

[steve22]

The above picture with the crumbling wall is quite an inspiration, Tony. Some nice stuff here to spur us others on. Thanks for the postings.

Steve.

[Dr.Glum]

Well now I'm beginning to get more comfortable with the methods of weathering brick paper, but tell you what, it's pretty stressful, because if you get it wrong or overdo an effect, you're risking ruining what's taken you ages to make. Mind you, that does teach you how to bodge a clean up. Oh for an 'undo button!

 

I had hoped that by starting this thread, I might draw out some experiences and examples from people who have been modelling with card and paper longer that I have. As that hasn't happened, you'll just have to put up with tedious images of what I have done.

 

The first image is of some weathering on arch brickwork, mainly to overcome a vertical fault in the construction. The left hand arch is on a tapered backing, that lies alongside another module at a very shallow angle. A section of the backing layer came unglued and during repair I was unable to achieve a flat surface, and there was a vertical shadow. The aim was to introduce more vertical shadings to hide the one that was caused by my bodging.

(The real object is all straight and right-angled: the camera has made the curves)

 

Truth be told, unless you want something extreme like white sulphate leaching out of the bricks, you don't need to do much to Scalescenes brickword, as it already contains colour variations. I have used a little black chalk, applied with the foam pad from the 'Pebbles Inc Chalking Set'. I might have also introduced some brown, but I can't remember! None of it is very obvious.

 

I am less confident about treating roadways. I have a conflict between the pristine nature of the Scalescene cobbles, and the look of cobbled main roads in old photos. (Bus and tram books are very helpful, but sometimes confusing: are you looking at cobbles or setts?)

 

So now I offer what is possibly the most boring set of three images in RMweb. The first view was taken after quite a lot of work with grey chalk, applied with a pad. There was also a bit of brown, for muck being trucked out of the side road. This process was very wearing: there's something about the printed pattern that makes your eyes cross after a few minutes of work. I was not happy with what I achieved: it was too patchy. I put it aside for a day.

 

The next view is after further work, filling in lighter areas, and using a large ball of cotton wool to 'blur' the various areas. I also tried to rub out a black area that was too 'heavy' and unconvincing.

 

The last view shows the state of things when I decided "enough is enough, I'm not improving it, and I'm no longer sure what it is I'm trying to achieve".

 

I imagine that by the time I've built all the surroundings and 'dressed the set' with street lights, phone box, vehicles, a couple of people and so on, it really won't attract my attention. Niggling though.

 

Conclusions from my efforts of the last two months:

 

Chalk does work on printed paper, but gives subtle effects. These are also diminished by the varnish layer.

White chalk is too subtle and dissappears when varnished.

Chalk adheres well to surfaces painted with enamel paints.

Chalk is not easy to apply uniformly on large areas.

Chalk can be 'toned down' by rubbing with clean cotton wool.

Weathering powders give much stronger colour effects - apply with care!

I could not use Water soluble coloured pencils (such as Faber-Castell Art Grip Aquarelle) the way they are intended, as water would ruin the ink-jet printing. A brief test on laser printed page allowed the pencils to work as water did not move the image.

Coloured pencils can be used to mark out lines against a ruler or square, before painting in with paint wash. For example, I used a brown pencil to draw verticals before washing in the mortar where one wall used to join another. A white or grey pencil would be useful for marking out painted letters on walls before painting.

Pastel pencils (such as Faber-Castell Pitt Pastel) take much easier to paper surfaces as they are softer and 'oilier'. The colour range is more limited, but I found a good mid green for damp or plantwork.

 

Cheers, Tony

 

PS quite by accident I was on a retail park and saw a Hobbycraft store. That's where I found you could buy water soluble pencils (£1.09 each), pastel pencils (£1.49 each), pastel sticks (don't know). I also took a chance on a replacement for my exhausted matt varnish, and am now pleased with 'Daler-Rowney Perfix Colourless Fixative for pastels' (400ml £10.10). None of these are cheap, but they're going to last a long time. The spray is very forgiving: in a careless moment I created a puddle on the paper suface - when it dried you could see nothing.

[BlackRat]

Thanks for this! More than useful!

[smudgeloco]

Great thread, and the brickwork looks amazing. Inspirational.

[Oldddudders]

Thanks for this! More than useful

Exactly. The minutiae of the technique, and your givens and druthers re various products, gives us a head-start in trying similar works. One of the most useful contributions in recent days, I think. Thankyou again!

[Chubber]

Hi, Tony,

 

"Chalk does work on printed paper, but gives subtle effects. These are also diminished by the varnish layer.

White chalk is too subtle and dissappears when varnished.

Chalk adheres well to surfaces painted with enamel paints."

 

Just to say that I have had success in the past with a white pencil of the sort that ladies use to whiten the underside of their finger nails in what I believe is called a 'French manicure'. It seems to be a cross between chalk and an oil pastel and can be sharpened in a pencil sharpener well enough to write legibly on OO stuff, and they cost very little. Sadly the car park with the white lines no longer exists so I can't post it.

 

Doug

[George Hudson]

Just to add my thanks for your taking the time to share this; I too found it a source of inspiration and encouragement. I am also looking at the 50/60s and need to find a way of representing years of smoke on brickpaper brickwork, sometimes to the point of near black. I am now off to do some test strips.

 

 

Andrew