Rebuilding a City – Bricking It

Image from Flickr

Continuing my terrain building thoughts from yesterday, I've been thinking about bricks.

40k ruined warehouse

I'm intending to build a warehouse and fenced yard for my Malifaux board and, rather than use my classic concrete-rendered look that I've employed for my previous terrain buildings, I want to create something that looks much more Victorian yet isn't fussy or a beast of a project to complete. The bottom line is my warehouse has to be a brick building – but how do I create the bricks?

Making bricks by Emmanuel Nouaillier

There is no doubt that the most stunning effect would be one demonstrated by Emmanuel Nouaillier. The end results are simply jaw-dropping, but the man hours involved seem prohibitive under my self-imposed conditions.

Victorian warehouse by TM Terrain

I've also been heavily influenced by the guys at TM Terrain who have produced an amazing Victorian London cityscape that is absolutely ideal for playing Malifaux. However, I fear their brick-making procedures involve a similar amount of time and thus would never be finished.

Employing primary school techniques

An appropriate solution occurred to me this morning while I was sorting out my gaming terrain. I used a 'potato-printing' technique when I created the cobblestone effect on my gaming board and I think this may be the way forward.

Can you turn cobbles into bricks?

I will have to create a stamp that has much smaller bricks on it than the cobble road had, which will be testing, but if the final effect is anything like the crossroads I will be very happy.

At the moment I'm contemplating how to employ this technique. Do I try to 'print' polyfilla (or something similarly thick) onto the terrain prior to painting and make use of the raised brick surface, or do I paint it up in my usual way then print the bricks as a final effect?