I'm looking to try my hand at a (very little) bit of kitbashing and find myself in need of some HO scale brick. The building I'm modifying is a Walthers, so I thought I'd try their brick sheets. They have some brutal reviews out there, however, so I was wondering if there's something else I should check out. Anything you'd recommend?
I have used both Walthers Cornerstone Brick Sheet and JTT Plastic Pattern Brick Sheet. I much prefer the Walthers Cornerstone Brick Sheet which looks more realistic.
I don't recall any brutal reviews of Walthers Cornerstone Brick Sheet. What is the issue there?
Rich
Alton Junction
I've also used Walthers brick sheets. They are a good match for other Walthers brick kits.
In most Walthers brick structure kits, the outside face of the walls is fine but the inside face, which shows up along the insides of the parapets around the roof, has no adornment. I remedy this by cutting brick sheet strips about 3 bricks high, then painting them and mortaring the bricks to match the outside. Walthers brick sheet is fine for this.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
richhotrainI don't recall any brutal reviews of Walthers Cornerstone Brick Sheet. What is the issue there?
I ran into some difficulties with the Walthers brick sheets shattering when trying to make openings for windows, but that was due to using a corner-punch. A cut-off disc in a motor tool would have worked better, I think.
Wayne
Hi BlazmoIntoWowee. That's quite the moniker!
Walthers brick sheets have very nice detail but they are rather thick. That's good when you need structural support, but it can be a PITA when trying to cut them, as doctorwayne noted.
If the brick detail isn't crucial, Plastruct makes brick sheets that are relatively thin (0.020") and easy to cut. I have used them to line the inside walls of a roundhouse and the floor and walls of a turntable. They are vacuum molded so the detail isn't nearly as good as the Walthers sheets.
https://plastruct.com/search?q=brick+sheets
Here are the Plastruct sheets installed inside a Walters roundhouse:
Here is the turntable pit. The brick pattern is visible to the naked eye but it doesn't show much in the photograph. It isn't very bold. Click on the picture and you can see it better:
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
I use Walthers brick sheets for two purposes.
One is the use of brick sheets as back walls on Walthers Cornerstone background buildings which, out of the box, have no back walls.
Two is the use of brick sheets to make pilasters for Walthers Cornerstone Modulars. I used modulars to build over a dozen large freight houses, but the problem with Walthers modulars is that the pilasters must be ordered separately. Once, the modular kits were discontinued by Walthers, the pilaster kits became impossible to find, so I made my own by cutting the brick sheets to fit. A perfect solution.
I agree with the setiment here. Walthers sheets look great, but they aren't so easy to cut. They are a bit brittle. snapping horizontally requires a sharp Xacto #11 scored down the same mortar line several dozen times then bending carefully.
The problem is the vertical cut which you can't '"score". I tried a nibbler. It didn''t work so well because the plastic didn't flex enough out of the way for the cutting tool. So I used a cutting disk on a dremel. This melted the plastic edge, but I just gave myself a little extra scrap edge where I could sand it down to the edge I wanted.
Don - Specializing in layout DC->DCC conversions
Modeling C&O transition era and steel industries There's Nothing Like Big Steam!
DigitalGriffin I agree with the setiment here. Walthers sheets look great, but they aren't so easy to cut. They are a bit brittle. snapping horizontally requires a sharp Xacto #11 scored down the same mortar line several dozen times then bending carefully.
richhotrain I use a box cutter. That requires only one or two passes. Rich
I use a box cutter. That requires only one or two passes.
Ooooh I can't wait to try that. Thanks Rich.
When considering brick sheet don't forget N Scale Architect which in fact has sheets specifically for HO (in addition to N of course). Moreover they have a variety of brick patterns.
Dave Nelson
richhotrain DigitalGriffin I agree with the setiment here. Walthers sheets look great, but they aren't so easy to cut. They are a bit brittle. snapping horizontally requires a sharp Xacto #11 scored down the same mortar line several dozen times then bending carefully. I use a box cutter. That requires only one or two passes. Rich
Micro mark has a gadget called a nibbler. That is what I use. drill a hole in the window area, stick it through and cut around the inside of the window opening. then just sand to the lines. no risk of breaking. you just nibble away. like cutting or sawing especially good with brittle plastics like walthers brick sheet.
Shane
A pessimist sees a dark tunnel
An optimist sees the light at the end of the tunnel
A realist sees a frieght train
An engineer sees three idiots standing on the tracks stairing blankly in space
As others have said, Walthers brick sheet is a lot thicker than other products. However the brick is an exact match for a lot, but not all, of the Walthers brick structures. (For example the Water Street Freight Terminal doesn't match the brick sheet.) That makes it a lot easier to extend/kitbash those structures. It's also almost to scale. The next best material I've found is the N-Scale Architect sheets. Those are available in several different bond patterns. The size of the brick is slightly larger than Walthers, so the mortar joints won't line up. Depending on what you're doing that may not matter.
I make my own brick sheets. Using Autocad©, I draw the brick outline to fill an 8-1/2 x 11 sheet. I then print it out on a brick colored sheet with as many copies as I need. I then back it up with a pressure sensitive (PSA) sheet. I then cut it out to fit the card stock or wood that I use for the walls. I can scribe windows and doors then cut them out with a #11 blade. Thete are several other ways to do this. You can draw your brick pattern on PSA paper and color it with artists paints, then stick it to heavy card stock, then cut as needed for windows and doors. Another way is to take a pre-printed brick sheet and have it copied on a color laser printer.
DigitalGriffin Snapping horizontally requires a sharp Xacto #11 scored down the same mortar line several dozen times then bending carefully.
Hi DigitalGriffin,
I start my cuts with a sharp #11 blade. I go just deep enough to create a line for the blade to follow. Then I switch to a dull x-acto blade, preferably with a tiny bit of the tip broken off. I hold the handle almost vertical and then draw the blade backwards down the cut line. The square tip acts like a scraper and cuts significant amounts of material out with each pass. You have to start gently at first but once the cut line has been established, you can apply a bit more force.
This method has the advantage of making almost perfectly square edges. A sharp #11 blade used in the normal matter actually forms a 'V' in the styrene and it leaves a ridge on either side of the cut. That's because it is displacing material to the side as opposed to removing it. The backwards #11 blade actually removes material so the groove is 'U' shaped. If you are using the 'scribe and snap' method you will still need to dress the cut but not as much as with the 'V' shaped cut.
Cheers!!
BlazmoIntoWowe with only one e was already taken!
Thahis for info. Some reviews of the Wathers sheets said they looked nothing like brick, and one posted a picture that was basically a flat sheet of brown plastic. Not sure if those fellows got knock off products or what. Based on what you all have said, it seems like they should do what I need.
Thanks!
BlazmoIntoWowee Thahis for info. Some reviews of the Wathers sheets said they looked nothing like brick, and one posted a picture that was basically a flat sheet of brown plastic.
Thahis for info. Some reviews of the Wathers sheets said they looked nothing like brick, and one posted a picture that was basically a flat sheet of brown plastic.