Reproduce stone walls, brick window frames with styrene?

[Blue Atlas]

I could use some advice on recreating this window frame treatment. As seen in this photo, the window is encased in brick on a stone wall. Some openings will be arched.

The model will be built in styrene. I've located some reasonable materials that are a close match to the stone, but not sure how to "embed" the brick.

Is this possible, or too difficult so forget about it and go all stone? I would love to see some examples if you've done this before.

 

[mbinsewi]

What about getting a brick wall panel, and cutting it to fit.  You could still use smaller peices of the brick wall panel to cover the jambs, around the inside of the opening.

Hopefully, the stone panel sheets you found would be a bit thicker than the brick, to get same effect that's in the picture.

Mike.

[NVSRR]

I would use a material called epvc.  It comes in flat sheets and takes carving and impressions nicely.   Just like the pink and blue foam used on layouts that is expanded styrene. It cuts easier than styrene and works, paints, and glues the same as styrene.  That will allow you to produce exactly what you want with much less work.  The thinest is 3/16 thick but that is a good depth for stone walls. 

[UNCLEBUTCH]

 Possible ? sure, difficult? thats for you to decide.

I would do like Mike suggest, get some brick sheet, fill in, then cut window hole.

Some of those stones go into the brick,would be alot of fitting,and "I" don't think you would really see the effort.

 I had to look twice to see what you were saying. Give er a shot ,let me/us know how it came out.

[mbinsewi]

If the brick sheet is as thick as the stone wall sheet, you can cut out the pieces you want, and sand the back side down, (of the brick sheet)  to give the right effect.

It also depends on what type of backer your using.  

Mike.

[doctorwayne]

Blue Atlas

...The model will be built in styrene. I've located some reasonable materials that are a close match to the stone, but not sure how to "embed" the brick....

mbinsewi

What about getting a brick wall panel, and cutting it to fit. You could still use smaller peices of the brick wall panel to cover the jambs, around the inside of the opening.

I agree with Mike's suggestion, but the brick was used on the real structure because the stonework is mostly uncut stone - the outer surface of some of them protrudes quite noticeably, and around the window openings, it would have been easier to fill that space with brick, rather than trying to neatly cut the stone.

As you can see in the photo, the bricklayers finished the edges around the window as would be done on any all-brick structure.  However, where the brick meets the stone, each brick has been altered (a simple whack with the mason's hammer) to correspond, with the addition of some mortar, to the rough ends of the adjoining stonework.

I suppose that a key question should be "How many doors and windows will be in this structure?"

If it's under a dozen, cut your styrene stone walls to the same irregular rough opening shown in the photo, matching the vagaries of the shapes of each stone's end, then cut your sheet of styrene bricks to match.  The brick which abuts the stone will be mostly partial bricks, perhaps with irregular-shape ends.
 
While I'm not familiar with whatever styrene sheets of stone you're using, I'd guess that each infill of brick will have to be custom fitted, as it's unlikely that the stone pattern will repeat on the same frequency of spacing as the windows.

I don't think that there's any need to make a "return" where the brick meets the window's frame, as the window is close to being flush with the face of the brick.  You could use your X-Acto or a razor saw to create "mortar" lines in the ends of the brick pieces where they meet the window.

If your planned structure has more than a dozen-or-so windows and doors, it's still do-able, but very much dependent on how much you're willing to do, as this could become rather tedious work.

I spent a fair amount of time on this simple structure, originally The Novelty Iron Works, from IHC.  Any brick I had to use mostly came with the kit, and was in multiples of regular shapes....very simple.
 
I used both long walls on the side of the building visible from the layout's aisle, while the unseen back is simple a plain sheet of .060" styrene. 
To join the two walls required removing part of the mating ends of each wall, then re-carving the mortar lines in the stonework.
 
The loading dock, all done with strip styrene was easy enough to do, but didn't take too long to become boring...

Painting the stones was another boring task - not otherwise difficult, though...

...while applying mortar was pretty easy, and the results were quickly accomplished...

There are 62 windows (not including the bricked-up openings) in this industry, but if I were doing the structure you wish to build, and it was of a similar size, I doubt that I'd bother, even though at one time I might have.

I'd say go for it, but if it becomes too daunting, don't be afraid to recognise your limitations. 
We all start out with limitations on almost everything, and mostly conquer them, over time, until we start to see the same limitations arising again.

Wayne

[UNCLEBUTCH]

While at the workbench today,I noticed that the stone pattern I have is fairly thin.010/015 ?

What if you cut out the stone as you like,then just lay it ontop of the brick sheet.

I'm thinking that should give the effect your looking for without a lot of cutting or fileing.

The stone sheet would need some sort of backing anyway.

[hon30critter]

Hi Blue Atlas,

I think that 'The N Scale Architect' might be your friend. They offer several different styrene building sheets including random stone and various brick patterns, and they even have brick arches for windows.

https://thenarch.com/catalog/building-sheets

The nice thing for you would be that the sheets are 0.020" thick, making them fairly easy to cut precisely with a sharp #11 blade. Of course you will have to build a supporting structure to mount the sheets on but that isn't difficult.

I would start by cutting the stone sheets so that you have the irregular pattern around the window openings. Then lay those over top of the brick sheets and mark the stone pattern on the brick sheet. Then cut the brick sheet accordingly.

The arches are patterned separately so you will need some infill bricks between the top of the arches and the rough stone. To do that I would cut the arches into a plain brick wall first, and once that assembly had dried hard, then cut the brick wall to fit the stone pattern.

As doctorwayne said, this could become pretty tedious if you have a lot of windows to do, but I think the uniqueness of the structure would justify the effort. The structure will need to be very close to the viewer so they can appreciate the detail.

I will politely disagree with doctorwayne on one point. He suggested that you wouldn't need to put a return on the brick detail. In other words, the actual window itself wouldn't need to be set back inside the window opening in the wall. To me, if the window was set back inside the wall by perhaps 0.060", that would make the brickwork stand out much better. All you need to do is add 0.060 strip to the back of the brick detail and then cover it with a strip of the brick sheet.

Plain styrene is available from Evergreen Scale Models in a huge variety of shapes and sizes:

https://evergreenscalemodels.com/

Caveat: I have never done this, so all I am telling you is how I would approach the task. I am fairly good at coming up with ways to do things, and this project really appeals to me, but perhaps others will have better suggestions.

Dave

 

 

 

[jjdamnit]

Hello All,

I can think of two ways to model this...

My questions to the OP are:

• Do you want this to be 3D or do you just want the appearance?
• What scale are you modeling?

The first option, if you want it to be three dimensional, I would look at a combination of Chooch products.

Their "stone" products come in a range of shapes and sizes. On their website these are classified by scale.

For your project I would look at relative sizes; an N scale might best represent the smaller brickwork around the window frame while the HO or O scale might best represent the larger stonework.

On the Chooch website they also offer weathering tips. These tips show how to vary the color- -darker or lighter- -of their products. This would allow you to get the various shades depicted in your photo sample.

The wooden members might be as simple as a strip wood facade or using scale lumber actually set into the structure.

The second option would be using printed patterns from Textures.com.

You could choose your particular patterns and print them out. Then cut the particular printed patterns to interlock.

The wooden elements could also be printed on paper.

Another source for patterned styrene is JTT Scenery Products. 

For the kitbashed roof of my Northern Light & Power project I wanted a 3D slate roof. I used their Scalloped Edge Tile, HO Scale (1:100).

I painted the sheets with Rust-Oleum "Chalked Charcoal" (302590). Krylon also makes a "Chalky Finish 'Anvil Grey'" (41040) it's an identical match.

To weather the streeks from the metal roof vents I used chalks and sealed it with a matt spray.

Hope this helps.