An odd subject?

This may seem like an odd subject, but for me it was perfect.  It's a historical structure in Barre, and made of brick. Why does brick matter?

Well ever since Rich started and continued his Experiments with Brick thread, I've been dying to work with some brick. Add to that mix the new MRH sponsor Monster Model Laser Works, (I've also been lusting after that freight house) and it didn't take much of an excuse to get me started.

The Labor Hall is a large building, and located off the railroad. Through the magic of modeler's license, it would now find itself backed up to the rails, and as I can't fit the entire building, I would only make a small back section.

I measured out and set the back wall as a reference point, using documentation and photographs on the subject (being an historical site, there was some good information out there). Jimmy at Monster was very helpful in assisting me in setting up the cuts I needed; after a few back and forths, he had the file he needed to make the cuts.

I'm in the back half of a summer trip to the states, in which I normally "stock up" on some hobby items that are harder to get. I ordered the walls from Jimmy while I was in Abu Dhabi; they arrived this week in the mail here in New Hampshire.

Interested?

Here are the custom building parts (still in plastic, sorry for the cloudy view).

and a close up of the amazing brickwork from a piece of left over board (also included)

Stunning, isn't it? 

I also ordered a set of his brick chimney's (if you do nothing else for your buildings, order these, they are incredible) and lintels.

I return in about a week or so, and I can't wait to get started on the building.  Jimmy's bricks are by far the best I've seen, and his willingness to help you create your own designs is fantastic.

Neat-o

I'm looking forward to seeing this structure make some progress.  The walls look great just in the package.

I don't know

I don't know. That would make all my other structures look pretty amateurish.

Let us know how the build goes.

Any links to prototype photos?

Wiki and NHL and other sources don't seem to have a photo of the Socialist Hall in Barre.  What pix did you use?

These are not mine

Please note that these are not my pictures, and I haven't any permissions to use them. I found them through Google.

Back

Back

Front

I'm back dating the build by putting windows back where they were filled in.

Testing the Brick

I have some time this weekend, and with other things kinda on hold, I wanted to get back to this project.  For starters, even though the pictures I have show the guild hall as painted brick, I want a more bare brick look - especially on the Monster brick walls.

Rich had a great thread on experimenting with brick; I took a hard look at it to remind myself, dug up the old RMC, and whipped out a test strip of the Monster Brick. I'm going to try using the sponge method.

For starters, a blank piece of Monster Brick.

than a coat of Polyscale light gray undercoat (Note that my paint colors as follows are NOT my preferred choices, but what I have on hand).

and after that, a sponged treatment of Poly Scale DRG&W Red

Wow! even with some "oversmudging" (meaning I had too much on the sponge, and or was too aggressive as I pressed it in, this looks pretty good! You can really see the texture of the Monster Brick.

Next up was some random (hard with this small piece) Citadel Vermin Brown

not much difference, in part because the differentiation of color between the DRG&W red and the Vermin Brown isn't that significant.

Finally, some Poly Scale weathered black.

again too much smudging in a few spots, but overall I like the effect.

And to compare vs a bare piece

And finally, how it will look from my normal operating view.

It doesn't pop as much as I'd like in the last shot, but this is a narrow strip. I'm guessing a whole wall of it will stand out more.

A couple of lessons I learned from this small test

• blot off excess as much as possible
• don't press the sponge down to the material too hard - just light touches
• remember random, random, random - don't "coat" the entire surface with each color.

Now to start constructing the walls. As the side walls will be less visible, I'll color them before the back, hopefully that will allow me to get the process down a bit more.

Lintels

Next step in the process is cutting out and applying the lintels.  I purchased a set of the curved lintels from Monster at the same time I had the walls cut.

I started out with the calipers and measured the window opening. Using the Monster guide, I cut my first, but found it looked wrong. A glance at the prototype showed me that it had much narrower lintels than what Monster suggested, finally resulting in the first sized correctly.

With that as a template, the rest of the lintels were cut out. Note that the nice part is you can just cut along the brick lines, a light sand afterward takes care of any rough edges.

With all the lintels cut, I went back and glued them in place on the main, and side walls.

You might be wondering what the lower right hand section is; I had forgotten that I had enough extra space to have this additional 1/3 profile building cut. It's just supposed to be a generic brick building, there are two narrow sides to match. The good news is that I can paint this first before the guild hall - by then my technique better be good!

Tomorrow, once the lintels have had a good day to dry, I'll hit the walls with the undercoat gray in preparation for sponging. After that, it will be time for windows, and window sills.

Paint Day!

For the first time in months, I was able to break out the airbrush and paint!

Both the guild hall and "the other" building got a coat of Poly Scale light gray undercoat.

front and back

And then the first sponge bath of Poly Scale DRGW red. Here's "the other" building.

and the guild hall

you'll notice, as Rich mentioned in his thread, the sponging makes it hard to get into the corners. You can see it here on the guild hall around the lintels (still showing gray).

Taking a small brush, I just dry brushed the main color in these spots to make them a lot less evident. The one on the right has had the "treatment".

after that, a light sponge coat of the Citadel Vermin Brown, and Poly Scale grimy black.

naturally, there were a couple of vermin brown smudges on the main wall that annoyed me. I wasn't sure how to take care of it, than it struck me  - colored pencils. I used darker ones to spread the smudges out a bit, than a white one in the grout lines to break it up. I think it worked.

Not a bad looking brick wall! Thanks Monster Works!

In case anyone is interested in the colors I used, here they are. I'd recommend some variation though!

Party Hall

Looking very nice Tom. Surfed your site. Very nice pictures. Have done some rail fanning in that area. Also have pictures of the S-4 8081 at, IIRC , White River Jct. Great place to railfan was/is St. Albans, Vermont. great place to sit and watch trains was right across from the roundhouse. I did a google and see that it's still there.

Chased the Green Mountain when I was up there in the late 70's. Loved their RS-1's.

I'm kind of basing my line on the Northeastern roads.

BTW, I have Monster Works freight house. So I'm following your right up on painting wood structures before I attempt to do mine. Also thinking of getting some of their wood walls to practice on.

Keep up the great work. I'll keep watching and be quiet.

Bernd

Round and freight house

A better picture

I worked on the windows; naturally I made a gross error in measuring, so all the openings were a smidge too small. Nothing some patience and a file can't fix.

As a result, here they are (being held on behind with masking tape). I need to glaze these first before gluing in. Oh, and order another dozen from Tichy before I can continue...hello three week delay.

I think I'll paint the inside of the window openings dark green to match as well.

What do you think of the brick?

Brick Work

Boy that's looking real good. Are you going to high light the bricks later to make them stand out more?

Bernd

I'm not sure

I'm not sure, I may even go darker. This is a great look for a once painted white, but now faded facade. I wonder if I shouldn't go over it again...

Pictures

I went back and looked at the pictures you referenced in your posts. Seems like every picture you look at you get a different shade of red. I didn't see any that were white though.

Anyway keep up the great work on that master piece. I'll keep watching. I may just learn something here.

Bernd

Wow I have been thinking of

Wow I have been thinking of how to do brick now you just showed me man will have to try that out.

Late to the party

Been away fom the hobby a lot this summer but this looks GREAT to me! Only thought: don't go darker on this one. I've found that unless you have very strong contrasting colors too much of a wash makes it just turn into mud. Looking at your palette I'm not sure you can avoid that issue. The peeling paint look is fantastic, don't mess it up!

Also think the building selection is just a cool sounding idea for placing the prototype. Very unique.

Windows

The windows arrived from Tichy about a week ago, just about $.30 each. A coat of paint, some dirty glass, and the walls are starting to fill in. I'm doing the sides first.

I don't know about you guys, but I absolutely adore the Monster Model Works brick. Simply great looking stuff.