Free Bricks (Paper)

[Hobby Dreamer]

Hi Guys,

I came across this link - its a brick generator for paper..

http://paperbrick.co.uk/index.php?action=selectbrick

I know that brick is not common in Japan and a lot of people here don't like card models but its free and you can scale it so there is a lot of potential.. 

Cheers
Rick

[cteno4]

Cool, thanks rick.

Jeff

[marknewton]

I know that brick is not common in Japan and a lot of people here don't like card models but its free and you can scale it so there is a lot of potential...

I think brick structures are more common there than you might think. 

http://picasaweb.google.com/114871643743378127956/FWWhSF?gsessionid=irwUmgosk6bhKtDR0_AQew

Notice, too, how many of these are railway structures or lineside industries.

All the best,

Mark.

[Bernard]

Rick - This is fantastic! There are walls on my layout that I've always wanted to make brick but at my LHS a plastic sheet was 9.00 USD. Now I can make those brick walls. Thanks!

[cteno4]

wow just played with this some today and it makes nicer brick textures than ive seen out there on the web in the past! very cool you can vary pattern, mortar color and width, etc! its very high res output for n scale.

jeff

[Bernard]

I been playing with it also....what specs. for n scale are you finding are giving you the best results?

[cteno4]

Bernard,

i havnt printed any out yet, that will be the big tell. i actually think that the scale may need to be increased a tad and the mortar a bit more pronounced than prototypical so it will show up better at any distance at n scale and be recognizable. this is something that i find that has to be done now and then at n scale on layout sizes to make things pop at greater than 1' away.

jeff

[KenS]

I believe brick was very popular in Japan after the Restoration, when "western" architecture was very influential, right up until the Great Kanto Earthquake showed just how unsuited brick was in an earthquake-prone country. There are still many brick structures that survived that (even around Tokyo), but what you aren't likely to find are the more modern mid-to-late twentieth century style of buildings, as there probably wasn't much new brick construction after 1923.

[Hobby Dreamer]

Hi Guys, Glad you like the link..

The developer is open to suggestions, maybe we can think of some things useful to us but also worth his while (i.e. not too rare to be worth his effort).

Maybe concrete slabs for sidewalks, as a thought?


Cheers
Rick

[Bernard]

I like that idea of sidewalks.
I printed out a sheet of the bricks and went with the default settings.....it looks like it could be used for N scale the way it is set up.
I played around with the N scale Japanese setting and it started to look "segmented" (that's the best way I can explain it)

I hope my wife doesn't wonder why the color ink print cartridges suddenly got low?

[Hobby Dreamer]

Hi Bernard,

I like that the bricks are different within one sheet.   I'll wait for a few weeks to see if there is any feedback here and then may email the developer with ideas for future track.

Its always great to find altruism on the net!

Rick

[cteno4]

Maybe concrete slabs for sidewalks, as a thought?


Cheers
Rick

ohh good thought! have to play with that. also for brick between tram rails as many lines have larger stone or concrete block alternating between rails a lot.

jeff

[cteno4]

I played around with the N scale Japanese setting and it started to look "segmented" (that's the best way I can explain it)

bernard,

did you try and print them out when you got the segmented look? i think that may be just an artifact of the brick repeating pattern when small at screen resolution. the on the fly downsampling of the image from i think like a 600dpi pdf file of a repeating image like this can cause an interference pattern as it tries to cram all that detail into like 82dpi when you are looking at it on 100% on the screen.

i think this is even more of a problem with the way these pdf files are made. basically there are a few images of different bricks (with variation in colors in textures) at very high resolution in the file then the there are just a bunch of postscript information on the size and placement of the bricks to give the scale and mortar thickness. this means the image has to built on the fly from the parts, not one big bit map. pretty smart, once you have the basic postscript generator and a few starting brick files you can whip up whatever you want!

cheers

jeff

[Martijn Meerts]

Not bad.. At certain zoom levels you can see tiling going on, but it might not be that noticeable when printed, and after adding some bushes and lichen and such, you can probably get away with it, even with tiling.

Cardboard bricks are great for background walls and buildings and such, up close I still prefer the plastic ones though.

[Hobby Dreamer]

also for brick between tram rails as many lines have larger stone or concrete block alternating between rails a lot.

There is always the option of going with a larger scale.. 

Rick

[cteno4]

also for brick between tram rails as many lines have larger stone or concrete block alternating between rails a lot.

There is always the option of going with a larger scale.. 

Rick

my thoughts exactly. too bad you cant have them laid on a curve!

i did a few print tests and the moire patterns dont show up when you print as i thought, its only the on the fly screen redraws at some resolutions that cause that. it did make the printer sit there and think a bit to print a quarter sheet!

jeff

jeff