Grey card bricks anyone??

The message from "Draconus" contains these words:

If your search doesn't produce a card version, "glue" the paper version onto Plasticard. (If you haven't done this before, cut the paper and Plasticard to the required size, place paper on top of plasticard and brush the paper with PlasticWeld or Mek-Pak - usual advice about lots of ventilation and not smoking apply here. After the solvent evaporates the paper and Plasicard will have become a single item, to be cut and stuck as usual.)

Brilliant ! Thanks for that Dave, yeah I got some paper brickwork here - I'll give that a go. I've tried scanning some limestone brick work at hi-res and printing it in grey-scale on some stock card. I got quite a reasonable result, but this obviously gets a bit expensive on ink.

Thanks again. Cheers Mal Oz

P.S. I'll remember to ditch the stogie when using the Mek-Pak ;-)

Mal,

When they get Exactoscale fully up and running again, you might want to look at their range of brick papers which seemed to have about every colour under the sun :-) They also used the printing process to give just the small suggestion of relief that is virtually spot on for 4mm scale.

The late George Slater (from whence Slater came from) used to demonstrate all the tricks of modelling in Plastikard with a cigarette permanently hanging from his lips :-)

Jim.

Glue the paper to appropriate card ?

Or is there a reason why that wouldn't work ?

- Nigel

He once passed out while decanting Full strength Mek too, but I would not recommend any one to try it.

The message from "Trev" contains these words:

I used to have access to Trichlorethelene (somebody knew somebody who worked for ICI). I knocked the stopper off the bottle when it was in the cupboard under the baseboard, and by the time I realised what I had done, I had to start again on the polystyrene-block scenery... Lucky the MPD wasn't over that cupboard or I might have needed to invest in some new locos!

It was good stuff for plastic welding!!

TCT + smoking = nerve gas

If you'd like to email me the scanned pattern I can crisp it up for you, for future printing

Cheers

Steve also Oz

One of the urban myths,....and it was Hydrogen Cyanide, not a nerve gas,...and TCT is an abreviation for a number of compounds, but not including trichloroethylene.

Ken.

Not quite - trichloroethelyne (as in fire extinguishers in the not too distant past) inhaled through a cigarette = phosgene (mustard gas type nasty).

Thanks for the very kind offer Steve, but I think my scanned and printed version should be ok. I scanned the brickwork at 600, descreened it, changed the colour using PSP and printed it at the highest resolution my printer can handle, so I think what I have got will work fine. I only need a couple of courses for banding against a red brick wall and a few 'columns' of grey brick for quoin-work on an old GE station. Besides, because of the hi-res scanning the original image is over 30mb !

Again, thanks, I do greatly appreciate the offer. Cheers Mal Oz (Perth actually)

ok Mal

Offer stands if it's needed in future ..... the 30meg issue can be easily managed, though that's BIG! how big is the physical image?

did you use high res paper or just store-bought card stock?

to get it really right, I imagine the best way to go would be to use hi-res paper and apply it but perhaps there's a hi res card available now.

being a graphic designer, I'd be interested to find out :) thanks

Steve

I did think of that, but the grey brick work is only a couple of courses of banding around red-brick station walls. As I want a flush finish (between the red and the grey) I though that sticking paper onto card might result in variation in thickness to the surrounding red-brick which is Metcalfe .515mm card. Also I was wondering about the longevity of sticking a band of only 2c paper brick onto a base of plain card.

Mind you, thanks to all your suggestions, I now have a few more ideas I can toy with. I'm bound to sort something out.

Cheers Mal Oz

The image is a full A4 page. I lied about the size though, its only 16mb (I did so many scans last night, I got confused with another image).

I used good quality coated paper for the original trials and got good results. The final was done on stock craft type card. Its not coated but has a reasonably dense surface, so bleeding was not an issue. Even printed at

1440 dpi (the best my printer can do) definition between the bricks and mortar is quite good.

I'm about to build a trial wall today with what I have got so far, if that turns out to look a bit naff, then I might take you up on your offer. See how we go.

Thanks Steve Mal Oz

Psp's "texturbrick" pattern looks nice

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The message from Bruce Fletcher contains these words:

IIRC, fire extinguishers used CTC (carbon tetrachloride), rather than trichloroethelyne. CTC was also an ingredient of "Thawpit" (carpet cleaner) which I used for cleaning/de-greasing track back in the Good Old Days when Hornby was Hornby Dublo from Binns Road, and Triang was that other stuff from the dolls' pram factory in Margate...