Newbie - District 22 - Downtown L.A. (A table top railway)
Hi.

You may remember I'd made mention of conducting some experiments to perfect shading, colouring and texturing of the walls in earlier posts, so if I may, I've included some shots of those experiments to date for continuity which I hope you will find of interest:

               

jonte
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Jonte,
I think it looks great. With a little coloring, the bricks won't appear so different. There's also different reasons why bricks don't always match. The builder had to change brick suppliers during the build (I've seen that happen), a necessary repair in the wall, replacing an entrance/loading dock, or just a simple addition. There are plenty of reasons. I think that it adds a gnarly distinctive character to a building. I'm actually digging it.
Mike Kieran
Port Able Lines

" If the world were perfect, it wouldn't be " - Yogi Berra.
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Thanks, Mike.

Funnily enough, you can almost count the number of bare faced orange bricks on one hand on the original ( if you want to check it out on street view the address is given as 1312 Palmetto Street LA), as most are peeling/fading white wash covered on top of that reddy coloured mortar wash, so most effort is put into replicating that. Still, it would be nice to try and match the few bare bricks that are present.

Thanks for your interest.

jonte
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Hi.

In my last post, I posted a photo of a further attempt at trying to replicate the peeling white wash effect of the original. Unfortunately, the masking fluid was still in place; however, I've since removed it so thought I'd post up a further photo or two.

It's in the bottom right hand corner of the test piece:

       

I think it looks okay so will proceed with this method. I don't think I could improve it.

The light brown colour simply serves as an undercoat between the grey primer and the top coat, and will hopefully serve as a 'shade'of interest if revealed during the sanding process.

Thanks for looking.

jonte
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Hi.

Undercoated.

       

Regards,

jonte
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Hi All.

Just thought I'd show you what I've been up to today in between waiting for coats of paint to dry:

   

It appears to be some sort of instrument through which the telephone wires enter the building from the telegraph pole and is set roughly centre of the original.

It's put together from old bits of brass and nickel silver fret together with some more brass wire and thin fuse wire, with blobs of solder serving to represent connectors. The end of the wire will either be connected directly to a telegraph pole set immediately adjacent to the model, or run to another part of the building. Was quite straightforward to put together; the hardest being to get the fuse wire to accept solder.

Well, that's the last of the photos for now at least until the building is finished.

Regards,

jonte
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The Wills bricks Plain Bond and English Bond arrived today. It is a good choice. They have a nice uneven structure not found on similar German products. I will put them aside for the next brick structure.
Thanks a lot for the pointer!
Reinhard
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Glad to be of help for once, Reinhard, as it's usually you helping me out Thumbsup

Look forward to seeing that rustic wall you're thinking of making from it.

Regards,

jonte
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Despite posting that I was going to leave out any further updates until the build was finished, I decided to post anyway.

My first weathering attempt didn't go too well: too much contrast in paint and peeling random effect wasn't quite random enough (this was to the thin roof fascia). Have decided to try the hairspray technique to see if this provides the finish I seek and have primed up a couple of pieces of plasticard in readiness. I let you know how it goes before I head off abroad next week.

In the meantime, I've had a bash at soldering up some conduit and telegraph insulators which I hope and trust will pass muster for those on the front of the real building.

               

Hope you like it.

jonte

PS forgot to mention that the couple or so of joins in the conduit along its length are formed of thin fuse wire, twisted on with pliers until the legs break off. They are then gingerly moved into place then hit with a couple of squirts of primer to adhere them to the wire from which it's formed. The addition of paint should seal the bond. When I first tried this method, I used solder which simply floods the area losing the detail in the process. jonte.
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You are definitely lifting the power line details to a new level of details Thumbsup

My thoughts about weathering the brick walls is to paint two layers plus a thin mortal wash. Then shrub is brutally with a brass/steel brush to remove the top layer partially when everything is dry. That should give a random pattern due to the uneven Wills brick wall.
Reinhard
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Hi Reinhard, and thanks for your kind words.

Thanks also for the tip re the weathering of the walls, however, I'm quite happy with the results of my recent experiments and prepared to fly with them. Basically, there are three modes of finish I've determined and what I've done to assist me with their final application is draw a plan of the building , onto which I've marked each mode e.g. One, two etc. so now I know what colour brick goes where and in which finish.

The problem I mentioned in my previous post concerns the thin overhang of the roof line which I think should quite well with the hairspray technique - fingers crossed Wink

jonte
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I've had another bash at trying to replicate the flaking, blotchy effect on the narrow parapet at the base of the roof:

               

I used the hairspray technique I've heard so much about, but improvised a little by using an acrylic paint mix over a 'matt' enamel base. Depsite what I've read, it still worked and provided something more representative of the real thing than the botched, patchwork quilt finish provided by the Maskol system. I'm quite pleased with the results which will receive a drybrushing of the brick wash in more enamel over the top.

Regards,

jonte
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jonte Wrote:Hi.

You may remember I'd made mention of conducting some experiments to perfect shading, colouring and texturing of the walls in earlier posts, so if I may, I've included some shots of those experiments to date for continuity which I hope you will find of interest:

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jonte
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