HO Scale brick building

I love historic brick structures, and, wanted to see what I could do with a simple vector cut pattern.  At first, I tried a more elaborate photo pattern, but decided it just was not worth it in terms of cut time.  I settled on something I thought was pretty cool: laser cutting laminated material.

I began by gluing a sheet of railroad board to a sheet of chip board, and adjusting my cut so that the laser would just cut through the railroad board.  One interesting out fall is that enough white showed from the railroad board (without char) that I could use it as mortar by just painting the surface.

The other interesting thing is that it is possible to cut all kinds of detailed brick work--vector files are so fast and easy to draw.  I did test a stronger cut at the edges and corners, but burn out caused by the laser dwelling in one spot made this effect not worth the effort--maybe in acrylic, but not paper.  That said, laser etching acrylic with such a tight pattern induces serious warp (experience talking).

Otherwise it is just a stack model.

 

The next experiment will be to pre-color the bricks with paint, and then cut through the paint--cool idea alert--how neat would it be to paint a brick wall before assembling anything?

I have an O scale building to try this on, but, it will have to wait till I finish a couple other things.