Balsa wood Buildings, Help needed please...

[Andy2035]

Hi all,

May I ask how can I do a brick effect on some Balsa wood please, is it a case of using a pen/pencil and drawing them on, also, how would the best way to paint it after...

I've tried looking on You Tube but there are just way to many, but I could find any that showed how to build from scratch...

Again, many, many thanks for any and all info/help, it is very much appreciated...

Andy...

[yak face]

Hi andy , just have a search for any of rons (spanner 570) excellent dio threads, he uses polystyrene for most of his buildings but im sure the methods would translate to balsa , his current WIP http://www.scale-models.co.uk/dioramas/17211-steady-wait-til-hes-right-bridge-1-72-diorama.html is a masterclass in scratching your own scenery , hope this helps cheers tony

[spanner570]

Tony, I tried replying as soon as Andy posted his question, but the post wouldn't send, so you beat me to it! Thanks for the plug, Merry Christmas and the cheque is in the post!lol

Andy, I experimented with sheet balsa for brickwork and found it virtually impossible to get anything like a decent finish.....

I found when doing the vertical mortar joints the balsa 'munged' in, and wouldn't give decent lines. Also no matter what paint I used the grain of the balsa showed through and it just looked like a plywood wall with brick lines on!!

As you know, I use polystyrene Pizza bases....This is great for brick and stone work, allowing all sorts of patterns and is very easy to model with..

Sorry if this reads a bit negative, there could well be someone on here that has had success with balsa brick walls that can advise you how to go about it.....

Cheers Andy and a Merry Christmas to you.

Ron

Just thought, you can get printed brickwork that can be stuck to the sheet balsa.

[Guest]

Balsa wood is for model aircraft or under structures. You can get a variety of superb moulded brick plastic sheets in various scales from South Eastern Finecast, right up to 1/32nd scale. I've used it in all scales and it is superb. Just make sure you match the bond round the corners. Have a good look at real bricks and follow that. Glue it to the balsa with Evo-Stik on both surfaces.

Cheers,

Martin

[Andy2035]

Thanks very much for the reply and info Tony...

Hi Ron,

Many thanks for the reply, I've tried to find the pizza stuff that you use but no where here has any, plus, I don't eat Pizza... I have a load of Balsa, I manage to get a load cheap off e-bay ages ago when I first thought of trying to build a diorama...

When I tried to draw in the brick lines, going with the grain it was ok, but crossing the grain it seem to colapse in more so leaves a much wider line, I've not seen the stick on stuff, but I suppose I could print some on some paper and then stick it to the Balsa... The other option I was thinking of is just drawing the lines with the grain and having it as a wood faced building...

Whilst your on, may I ask how would I go about doing some damage on the Balsa like you created on your houses, or is it again down to using the Pizza bases...

Once again many, many thanks for all your help...

Merry Christmas to you too and a Happy New Year...

Andy...

[spanner570]

That's a blow about the pizza bases....Don't you know anyone who likes pizzas? How about going to a place that makes them and try and blag a handful of polystyrene bases from them? I will look into that myself.....

Any polystyrene will do as long as it's the hard smooth stuff.

Regards the damage, I would think the principle is the same for balsa and styrene. I just dig, bend and cut it where required. Take a look at damaged buildings on Google Images and have a play with your balsa....seriously!

It's very difficult to write how to, without showing you. I suspect it might be difficult to get the same effect using balsa as opposed to styrene.

The trouble with printed brickwork, it is just that....it's paper and featureless.

The boards are an excellent idea.

Sorry, all a bit negative, it's just that I have very little experience with balsa for buildings.

Our good buddy Colin should be along soon, he's good with balsa and will be able to help, I'm sure.

Cheers,

Ron

[Guest]

To get brick lines on balsa without the grain problem i found that if you painted the balsa first then it swelled and softened slightly and enabled me to get a "fairly decent" cross-grain line.

As Ron says the grain poses the biggest problem and doesn't look quite right so i found sanding the dried "brickwork" down after seemed to help, the soaked in, dried paint gave a much firmer surface to sand.

At the end of the day though this only looks like really worn down brick, and it looks more realistic showing through plaster or pebble-dash than as a whole wall (as i found when doing the coutance dio)

As for damage ... as Martin said, balsa is perfect for structure bases so make up your structure as it would be in real life (i.e. struts, supports, lintles, crossmembers, rafters etc etc) add the walls, tiles etc then just squidge it into shape the balsa will snap and give way similar to life-size wood.

Thats my tuppence

[Guest]

In the smaller scale brick paper can be very effective using the modern photorealistic ones, but I still prefer some texture, so I use brick styrenes. However, the other way if you want to engrave is to slar a thin coating of plaster type stuff on the balsa, but you must be very careful not to dig too deep when engraving the bricks. Plaster buildings are very popular in the States.

Try Dave Ellis at South Eastern Finecast for the moulded sheets. They are not expensive.

Cheers,

Martin