I'm working on a Kharkov diorama, and the basic building is the Mini Art Ukrainian city building. The underlying structure is brick, and I want to have piles of brick rubble inside the walls. Verlinden makes some bricks, and Great North Roads has a huge brick pack, but I was wondering if there's a reliable way to make bricks in 1/35th scale?

I would especially like something brittle that could be snapped and broken like real rubble bricks.

What I did:

Take a piece of glass (picture frame is good). Tape down two thin pieces of wood down to the glass, parallel to each other, as far apart as you want the width of the bricks, and the wood should be as thick as you want the bricks. Pour into that gap some plaster. When it dries, pry off the wood. With the resulting giant rectangle, cut with an hobby knife your bricks. Some pieces will break on their own, others you can break. Throw them in a cup and airbrush them your primary "brick" color.

Easy and cheap.

Rob

Check out Keith's "Digital Diamond" right here on Armorama. I made two different size jigs and had more brick than I need in no time.
Link:

http://armorama.kitmaker.net//features/58

I made two different sizes and was cranking out bricks like crazy.

Shaun

Thanks, Shaun, this is _perfect_. I like the idea of either pre-coloring the plaster or using a stain. Anyone have a favorite stain for the bricks?

keenan is dead on - you can also use house hold spackle to fill the molds.

Now thats a handy tip im going to use!

Actually, that is how I found the site in October of 2002. I think I was doing a Yahoo search (no Google back then in the dark days) for zimmerit or making barbed wire and stumbled in here. There are a lot of really good how to articles in the features sections of the site.

Check 'em out.

Shaun

The Digital Diamonds by Keith McGee (sp? Apologies if I got it wrong!) are just that... diamonds!

Here's another little trick you can use when you pour bricks: tint your plaster with acryllic paint. That way, if they break after you've painted them, you don't get a glaring white surface that shows the oops! (The same tip applies to the Digital Diamonds custom dio/vignette bases.)