Simulating Brick Mortar

And another construction question ...

Does anyone know where to find a product called "Robert's Products Brick Formula" manufactured by Robert's Products, Milwaukee, WI?

Again, Google and Dexonline searches aren't taking me there.

In the alternative, does anyone have any dependable and realistic method for simulating brick mortar? (Operative words = "dependable" and "realistic.") A lot of the "washes" don't work all that well IMHO.

On my paper mill, I painted the warehouse building WC maroon for my brick color, the put just a tiny bit of water in a gray paint to thin it, painted that on, let it set for a second, and then took a paper towel and wiped off. Maroon was on the brick face, with a nice gray mortar. In some spots, some of the gray was left on the brick face so it looks like you have multi-colored brick.

With a lot of things in this hobby, it's trial and error.

Lately I've been doing my brick w/ permanent art markers. first i spray the assembled wall or structure w/ flat white tan or grey for the mortar color, either or all , just better if its flat. then I use different red orange tan,brown for the bricks. its easier than it may seem, just skim the surface w/ the primary color you want to do the building, then randomly color in after. lighter colors work better for the first step.
this technique works ok if the brick face is flat and the mortar lines are reasonably deep. most walthers and heljan buildings are good.
I gave up w/ dpm's, the bricks are too rounded, and the color goes into the mortarlines. the thin wash technique works better w/ theirs.

I tried the technique recently shared in Model Railroader where you use soft color pencils to color brickface. Works, but the effect is a bit streaky... Need to work on it a bit more...

JD

Thats where I got the idea to use the art markers, ended up w/ better results than colored pencils. and faster. good luck

There's a trick to making washes work. The trick is simple but not always obvious: pre-wet the surface with a light mist of water, then dab up the water that's on the tops of the bricks with a damp paper towel. The idea is to leave some water in the cracks but not on top of the bricks.

NOW, and only now, apply your mortar colored acrylic paint (Woodland Scenics concrete pigment works well, diluted about 1:2). Best applicator is a needle nose eyedropper, but a tiny detail brush works too. You don't want to apply much paint--just a tiny drop here and there.

Acrylics behave funny when applied to a wetted surface--they pretty much jump off the brush and rapidly diffuse through the water layer on the surface. That's why you dabbed off the water on top of the bricks--you want this magic diffusion to happen only in the low spots along the mortar lines. If the whole wall is wet, then the whole wall turns mortar colored.

You also don't want to do this too perfectly--vary the mortar color a little, allow some spots to remain more heavily colored than others.

I''ve done dozens of buildings this way and have been super-happy with the results.

I've had god luck with a thin grey wash, which seems to settle into the cracks between the bricks. I then wipe off the wash from the bricks. Works OK for me.

Several years ago at a show, I met a young woman who did some impressive work, bashing LOTS of pieces together for a large factory. The bricks had mortar and here's how she did it.

The wall is already textured to simulate bricks. First, she painted the entire panel BRICK RED. Let it dry.

Then paint the entire panel WHITE or whatever shade you want for mortar.

Then before the white paint was completely dry, she took masking tape, pressed it over an area and PULLED IT, RIPPING THE WHITE PAINT OFF THE BRICKS REVEALING THE RED, AND LEAVING THE WHITE MORTAR WHERE IT BELONGED, BETWEEN THE BRICKS.

The effect was most convincing to the eye, and she saved countless hours with a fine acrylic pen going through "The Maze".

Pretty sharp, huh?

D/