Wordless Wednesday #50

Brick Mortar Lines

The last time I did mortar lines on a brick building was c.1983. I'd just built my first structure kit (a Plasticville brick city building, IIRC). It was already molded in red, so "No Painting Necessary." But I'd read somewhere that you could get a neat mortar effect by applying white paint to the walls and immediately wiping it off. It worked great.

Fast forward over almost 32 years later, and I'm ready to try again on my Ballantine's beer warehouse. But things have changed - I've become a more "sophisticated" modeler. I actually paint the brick walls on my kit (heh - it helped that the brick was molded a "stucco" color and I wanted my bricks to be red).

But therein lies the problem - adding mortar lines isn't as easy this time around.

I'd heard of a technique using joint compound, and I tried that first. My efforts are in the photo below:

As you can see, the effect is underwhelming. I think the problem may be that the brick red paint I used was Floquil - flat flat flat. And I suspect the reason the compound isn't coming off the face of the bricks as nicely (as it would if the bricks were unpainted styrene) is that the flat brick paint has taken in some of the compound (it hasn't absorbed anything - the walls have been drying for almost two months(!)). Fortunately, that long wall is the wall that will be facing the backdrop. And the other walls won't be used in the final build, so I have some more chances to practice.

The next technique I tried was a wash of light gray PollyS (water based) paint, thinned 3:1 with acrylic thinner. That came out better, but still heavy (too light in color).

Finally, I'm trying thinning 5:1 with 91% isopropyl alcohol. Apply with a brush, then wipe off. That seems to be working ok, though I'm not sure about using alcohol rather than water (or acrylic thinner) to thin PollyS paint. But I thought the alcohol would evaporate more quickly and leave the color in the lines more easily.

What technique do you use for adding mortar lines to your brick walls? Do you paint the walls a brick color first? Does it matter whether it's a glossy or flat finish? Do you ever use alcohol to thin acrylic/waterbased paints?

Let me know - as always, any thoughts/suggestions/guidance are MOST welcome!

So, whadja get for Christmas?

I love hearing the answers to this question, especially from fellow model railroaders. You may have gotten something I've never heard of and it's neat to hear about all the cool stuff (and get ideas for future shopping lists!).

Santa was good to me this year - not quite sure why since I thought I might be on the Naughty List - but I'm blessed to have a very loving and generous family. And since this is a model railroad blog, I thought it'd be cool to show you what I got...

Looking top to bottom:

• Building software: Making mockups this past fall turned me on to a cool process for making buildings quickly, and I'm hoping this software helps in that effort.
• Resin Casting How-To DVD: I'm hoping that I'll be getting to details soon and populating a layout with hundreds of details (pallets, barrels, etc) can get very expensive if you buy them all commercially. And I'll likely have to scratchbuild the supports for the Rt. 15 bridge over the north end of Wethersfield - and scratchbuilding just one and then casting/copying it will be much better than having to scratchbuild a dozen (and I'm hoping casting them will give me more consistent results).
• Corner punch: for cutting out window & door openings
• "Scenery Tips & Techniques" book: self-explanatory
• "Trackside in Search of Northern New England Steam" : not my specific modeling locale, but still New England and will provide LOTS of great photo reference material for modeling and weathering (all the photos are in color!)
• Resin casting starter kit from MicroMark: all the stuff I need to get started.

Also, not pictured, I got a New Haven gondola kit from F&C (I got one last year too that I haven't built yet, so I'm hitting critical mass for another assembly-line build - soon!), and an animated Ballantine sign (video in yesterday's post - if all you saw yesterday was a big black square, click here to see it). Finally, I used a gift card & money I got to order a distressing brush, another Dremel and drill press vise - both to be used in/on the Dremel workstation (drill press) I got last Christmas. Should come in handy for drilling all the grab iron holes I expect are in my future(!)

So what cool model railroad stuff did you get? Share in the comments below!

Happy New Year!

I'm a little behind, having been out of state for the last week, but continue to watch this space: My New Year's Resolution is to Do More Model Railroading and make some progress on the layout (not to mention whittling down the number of freight car kits I have!)

I hope you and yours had a wonderful holiday season. Thanks for continuing to follow this blog, and for your comments/feedback. Your support and interaction is what makes this site - as well as this hobby - so worthwhile.

Happy 2015!

Wordless Wednesday #49

Wishing You and Yours a Very Merry Christmas!!

Happy Christmas Eve Eve!

Just wanted to do a quick post to wish you and yours a Very Merry Christmas!

Like many of us, things have been pretty busy around The Valley Line. Not much progress to report, but I've been getting to stuff as I can - mostly structure part prep for Ballantine's and Wethersfield Lumber. I hope to have progress photos - and maybe even some tips - posted soon. And I'm really looking forward to ramping up progress after the holidays (including a brief planned diversion to build a couple of F&C New Haven RR gondolas that I received from Santa TomD!) despite the up-coming legislative session.

I hope your "Santa" brings you lots of fun RR stuff - but I wish most for you that you get the gift of some time to enjoy what you have: build some kits, work on your layout, or even enjoy some "armchair modeling" by the fire (or a video of one playing on your TV/ipad). It's a wonderful time of year, made all the more wonderful by this amazing hobby and the people you meet along the way.

G. Fox & Co. - Where CT Valley folks did some of their Christmas shopping back in the day (or at least visited for the amazing displays). Not 1947, but close enough to provide some fun holiday time-travel!

Wordless Wednesday #48