HERITAGE MODELS – ASSEMBLY INSTRUCTIONS FOR BRICK WALLS AND ACCESSORIES

INTRODUCTION:  The following instructions offer tips for assembling Heritage Models products into buildings or building fronts. As a first step, decide what the building or front is going to look like when completed. Lay out the Heritage Models parts on a table and examine how they fit together to form walls and buildings (See Photo #1). To orientate the top versus the bottom edge of the brick walls, note how the brick walls have ¼ inch gluing lips along the outside edges of the brick walls. When you look at the brick surface side of the brick walls, three of the gluing lips are visible while the fourth gluing lip is hidden. The side of the brick wall which hides the gluing lip is the top edge of the brick wall. Also note how the window sills have an angled upper surface which faces up when the sills are installed in the window sill area of the window openings. Laying out the building in this way will help you visualize where you may need to cut the pilasters, corner pilasters and cornices in completing your own building or building front.

Photo #1

GROUTING THE BRICK WALLS & ACCESSORIES: METHOD #1

TOOLS REQUIRED: 1) small cake decorating knife or flexible metal spatula, 2) artists acrylic paints (such as liquitex colors), 3) interior/exterior wall patching compound (such as Spackle), 4) wet rag, 5) small flat paring knife. SEE PHOTO #2.

DIRECTIONS: 1) Add artists acrylic color not a plastic container in which you have places as much wall compound as you will need to grout the brick walls and accessories. (For a building consisting of 13 or 16 brick walls and accessories, 3 to 4 oz. of wall patching compound will probably be needed). In the liquitex line of artists colors, I usually use their mixing grey color for the grout on my buildings. 2) Applying the colored spackle to the brick walls is done very much like cake decorating, working the spackle into the grout lines with the metal spatula. To remove excess spackle, hold the cake decorating knife at a 45° angle when scraping spackle off the brick walls.  3) On brick walls with windows/doors openings, begin by grouting the brickwork in the window/door openings. Use the flat edged paring knife to scrape openings, then apply spackle to the rest of the brick wall. Work quickly as spackle dries quickly. Spackle only as much as you can scrape the excess spackle off before it begins to dry. 4) On mid-wall trim and cornice accessories, use the edge of the cake knife held parallel to the rows of bricks to trim out excess spackle and create a sharp neat edge. 5) Grouting with spackle is particularly attractive if you want to create an older, weathered brick structure. Spackling produces a great deal of variation and coupled with the varied surface texture of the brick works well to create an aged structure.

GROUTING THE BRICK WALLS & ACCESSORIES: METHOD #2

By contrast, painting the grout using an airbrush, aerosol spray paint, or with a brush, followed by using a printer’s roller (brayer) or foam pad type paint brushes to apply the brick color, produces a more uniform “new” brick look. Use an appropriate off-white or grey color for the grout. With this method simply paint the entire wall or accessory piece in the grout color using an airbrush or aerosol spray can, then follow the instructions under PAINTING.

SANDING THE GROUT: If you used the spackle method of grouting the brick, now you probably need to remove some excess spackle from the exposed faces of the brickwork. Use #100 or #120 sandpaper in an electric pad sander and sand lightly. This task goes very quickly and is much easier and far less messy than sanding filled joints in the drywall in your home. The cornices and brick mid-wall trim pieces may need some additional sanding by hand.

Photo #2

Photo #3

PAINTING THE BRICKWORK: See PHOTO #3

TOOLS REQUIRED:  1) Printer’s Roller (Brayer), which can be obtained from artists and craft supply stores, or 2) foam pad paint brushes, 3) artist acrylic colors (in the liquitex line I use red oxide, raw sienna or ochre yellow cut with titanium white for various types of brick colors), 4) scrap piece of styrene or plastic approximately 12 by 12 inches or larger, to use as an artist palette, 5) “00” artists brush.

DIRECTIONS: 1) place a small amount of paint on the palette and roll it our (if using the brayer). The brayer should be quite dry before you roll it on the brickwork. With the foam paint pad brushes apply light, even pressure to the brickwork. 2) Generally, always roll the brayer in the direction the bricks run. 3) Use a “00” artist brush (and a steady hand) to paint the bricks in the window and door openings of the brick walls and fill in ejection pin marks.

Heritage 2

Heritage 3

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Heritage 1

Heritage New