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BRICKWORK
Having just completed making a rubber mould of a particularly good master of a rough laid brick wall, I had been trying various methods of painting and applying the mortar to the plaster casting. I was really happy with the result of the painting of the bricks, where I had washed on various reds and browns, and then added highlights and darker low lights on the occasional brick.

However I was having trouble with achieving a good mortar effect, until I came across a one page article by Randy Pepprock in a back issue of "FINESCALE RAILROADER" . In the article, Randy put forward the idea of using baking powder (sodium bicarbonate)  which is a very fine grained powder, and brushing it into the mortar lines and then giving the casting a spray of a clear matte such as Testers Dullcote to fix the mortar into place. This method proved both easy to apply and gave a great effect. The result can be seen opposite. Thanks Randy for the method.