{"id":466,"date":"2017-10-01T05:27:08","date_gmt":"2017-10-01T11:27:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/boulianne.net\/maker\/?p=466"},"modified":"2017-10-01T05:27:08","modified_gmt":"2017-10-01T11:27:08","slug":"diy-playscale-bricks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/boulianne.net\/maker\/diy-playscale-bricks\/","title":{"rendered":"How to make 1:6 scale bricks"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve always had a thing for brick walls. They have so much texture, depth, personality. Brick makes everything better.<\/p>\n

So when I thought of making a dollhouse for my daughter, my mind immediately said “brick”! I’ve watched a lot of tutorials on how to make scale bricks, from making forms out of foam core to cutting a slab of clay in the right sized rectangles<\/a>. You can also laser-cut your brick pattern into MDF and just paint the bricks and grout lines. I even saw a few people recommend painting foam bricks or gluing brick-sized cutouts from egg cartons to your wall.<\/p>\n

But I’m a sucker for authenticity, and so decided to go perhaps a little too far in the direction of laboriously handmade.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n

The Process<\/h3>\n

I dusted off my barely-there CAD designing skills I picked up last year to start things off. I fiddled with the 3D modeling to make an inverse of the brick mold. And since\u00a0I’m fortunate enough to have a husband who likes to 3D print things, he fired up our MakerBot and printed up a lovely hard plastic form for me to work with.<\/p>\n

Looking to print the brick mold yourself? Download the CAD file (STL format)<\/a><\/p>\n

I chose a paint on rubber\u00a0(Mold Builder by Castin Craft)\u00a0 to make the mold with, which indicated carefully painting 11 coats of rubber onto what you want to make a mold of. The only problem was that each coat needed at least 6 hours to dry, and preferably 12. So if you add to that the fact that I just did a coat whenever I had time, it took me several weeks<\/del> a month to get the mold finished. Despite the long time lapse, the rubber captured detail better than expected and it’s lasted well through regular use.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

As I was making the mold I did some research into what types of material to use to make the bricks. I ended up deciding on plaster of Paris as it sets quickly (under an hour), is easy to clean up, and pretty cheap. I also have fond memories of making Richard Scarry molds with it as a child. My backup option was to be cement since Plaster of Paris isn’t waterproof (it might melt in the rain), but in this case, it wasn’t a big concern.<\/p>\n

One of the things you have to be careful of when doing any sort of casting is the dreaded air bubble. If you don’t get those suckers out before your medium sets you have holes in your beautiful cast. I ended up going with the tried-and-true (as well as free) method of just tapping the mold until air bubbles stopped coming to the surface. But if you’re going to be making a lot of bricks you might consider a cheap vacuum degassing rig – basically a shatterproof vacuum jar and a vacuum pump to\u00a0force the air bubbles to rise to the surface.<\/p>\n

I ended up spending a lovely evening playing around with iMovie to share my method for brick making. Wanna see?<\/p>\n