I had a building in the Cleveland portion of my layout that was going to be mostly hidden from view. The front was three City Classic pieces glued together to make one larger building. The sides were too short to fill the odd space I needed and I didn't want to spend a small fortune on plastic brick sheet, so I turned to my computer to save a little money.
I already had Evan Designs Model Builder Software. It has many textures (brick, stone etc.) and additional items like windows and doors to add to them. I decided I would print out brick sheets for the parts of the building that would mostly be hidden. What follows is a short tutorial on how I put the whole thing together.
First, I use a rough poster board template to map out the space I need to fill. You can see the already completed front of the building in the background.
I then used black foamcore (it cuts easier and is already the right roof color compared to the white) to make the walls of the building. Note the two triangular gussets inside for added support. I used yellow wood glue which ends up being very sturdy.
Here's the foamcore walls with the front temporarily leaning on it.
With all the walls cut, I printed out the brick paper on my printer and gathered up some roof details I wanted to use for the building.
Speaking of the roof, I flipped the building upside down and traced out the roof piece (also black foamcore), cut it out and glued it in place.
I then started applying the brick paper. I used Elmer's photo gluestick. I wouldn't use regular white glue because it has water content that will smear the inkjet ink. The gluestick seems to hold pretty well, even through humidity changes. The part you see here is what will eventually be a loading dock scene.
Here's the rest of the brick paper. Note the slight color difference from where my cheap printer either worked better as it went along. This is actually more noticable in the photo than in person. The two parts will be separated by a pipe to hide the seam anyway, and it will also be tough to see in its final position.
The loading dock was two section of dock from Walther's Modulars glued together sideways with some additional styrene strip for truck bumpers. I painted the whole thing Sandstone (Delta Ceramcoat paint)then used a black marker to make the bumpers black. I used a Micron pen to draw in the cracks on top of the dock that you will see later.
I also used Walthers Modular pieces for the brick trim along the roof that hides the edge where the brick paper meets the top of the foamcore. I've also learned that combining a few 3D elements with 2D artwork really helps fool the mind into thinking the whole thing is 3D. I painted the trim red and gave it several washes of white and black to get it close to the color of the brick paper. Trim is often different colored brick and weathers differently, so I wasn't real concerned with a perfect match.
To attach the City Classic front to the foamcore, I used a bead of gray caulk around the front edge of the foamcore. It actually made a pretty strong bond.
I added some styrene lentils under the windows to give them some dimension and a styrene rod painted black (downspout or conduit) to hide the seam in the paper. I then took some black chalk and streaked it down under the windows to give it a more weathered appearance.
Here's the completed dock scene. It's a Preiser figure I painted, plus some LifeLike pallets and some trashcans from some place I don't recall. I white glued everything in place, including the dock to the walls where it touches the building.
With that done, I glued the various roof details in place. The skylights are from Sodders Enterprises. He makes some really nice stuff. The chimney is from Mr. Plaster, I think. The AC unit is Walthers.
Here are a couple of shots of the building on the layout. One view is down the alley to the loading dock. The other is from the side (the brick "tower" is behind the loading dock -- as you can see, there isn't much of the building that's visible from the main aisle).
I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. I'm happy to answer any questions.
I already had Evan Designs Model Builder Software. It has many textures (brick, stone etc.) and additional items like windows and doors to add to them. I decided I would print out brick sheets for the parts of the building that would mostly be hidden. What follows is a short tutorial on how I put the whole thing together.
First, I use a rough poster board template to map out the space I need to fill. You can see the already completed front of the building in the background.
I then used black foamcore (it cuts easier and is already the right roof color compared to the white) to make the walls of the building. Note the two triangular gussets inside for added support. I used yellow wood glue which ends up being very sturdy.
Here's the foamcore walls with the front temporarily leaning on it.
With all the walls cut, I printed out the brick paper on my printer and gathered up some roof details I wanted to use for the building.
Speaking of the roof, I flipped the building upside down and traced out the roof piece (also black foamcore), cut it out and glued it in place.
I then started applying the brick paper. I used Elmer's photo gluestick. I wouldn't use regular white glue because it has water content that will smear the inkjet ink. The gluestick seems to hold pretty well, even through humidity changes. The part you see here is what will eventually be a loading dock scene.
Here's the rest of the brick paper. Note the slight color difference from where my cheap printer either worked better as it went along. This is actually more noticable in the photo than in person. The two parts will be separated by a pipe to hide the seam anyway, and it will also be tough to see in its final position.
The loading dock was two section of dock from Walther's Modulars glued together sideways with some additional styrene strip for truck bumpers. I painted the whole thing Sandstone (Delta Ceramcoat paint)then used a black marker to make the bumpers black. I used a Micron pen to draw in the cracks on top of the dock that you will see later.
I also used Walthers Modular pieces for the brick trim along the roof that hides the edge where the brick paper meets the top of the foamcore. I've also learned that combining a few 3D elements with 2D artwork really helps fool the mind into thinking the whole thing is 3D. I painted the trim red and gave it several washes of white and black to get it close to the color of the brick paper. Trim is often different colored brick and weathers differently, so I wasn't real concerned with a perfect match.
To attach the City Classic front to the foamcore, I used a bead of gray caulk around the front edge of the foamcore. It actually made a pretty strong bond.
I added some styrene lentils under the windows to give them some dimension and a styrene rod painted black (downspout or conduit) to hide the seam in the paper. I then took some black chalk and streaked it down under the windows to give it a more weathered appearance.
Here's the completed dock scene. It's a Preiser figure I painted, plus some LifeLike pallets and some trashcans from some place I don't recall. I white glued everything in place, including the dock to the walls where it touches the building.
With that done, I glued the various roof details in place. The skylights are from Sodders Enterprises. He makes some really nice stuff. The chimney is from Mr. Plaster, I think. The AC unit is Walthers.
Here are a couple of shots of the building on the layout. One view is down the alley to the loading dock. The other is from the side (the brick "tower" is behind the loading dock -- as you can see, there isn't much of the building that's visible from the main aisle).
I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. I'm happy to answer any questions.
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