# Interesting way to create "brick" wall effect.



## JohnnyL

Alright, I got bored and went in the garage. I found a scratch sheet of foam and then some tape. I tapes on the bricks (extra wide tape) and left a groute line inbetween each brick. I then just took some spray paint and sprayed the lines. Of course we all know spray paint eats away foam. So I removed the tape and.. whallah! Instant brick! It looks EXTREMELY natural due to the foam being eaten away a bit around each brick and the uneven lines inbetween. I then took a bunch of paint I had, greens, blacks, yellows, grey, red and painted it up. I was shocked, I could not believe it was foam! I don't have any pictures unfortunatly, camera is at my brothers home.

My question is, has anyone else used this idea? I don't see any difference between it and others who use routing equipment.


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## Dr Morbius

Johnny, that has got to be the smartest idea for faux walls I've heard yet.


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## heresjohnny

That sounds like an excellent idea to me. The last foam tombstone I did I used a cardboard cutout and simply laid it down flat on the foam, then sprayed paint. I wonder if you could cut out a few 'bricks' from carboard and lay them out in an area, and spry paint the grout lines there, moving the cardboard 'bricks' to the next area and spraying, etc. This would save a lot of tape, and seems like it would be much faster if you had to do several walls. Again, excellent idea!


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## Dr Morbius

Johnny, that has got to be the smartest shortcut to the smartest idea for faux walls I've heard yet.


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## heresjohnny

Johnnys know walls


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## JohnnyL

haha. Also, if you don't want the rough look inbetween the stones, just sand it down a bit. I think I'll use this technique on parts of my pillars and fascades to create the broken off mortor look.


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## JohnnyL

Alright, keep in mind this was done in 2 minutes just as a TEST! Plus, horrible picture taken with camera phone...


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## gypsichic

wowza! thats looks fantabulous!


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## Hellrazor

yes Awesome!


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## ScareFX

It does look good!


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## JohnnyL

Thanks everyone! When I use this on my pillars and facades, which will have foam exteriors, I'll be sanding the area where the bricks will be down a bit (to show that the plaster is raised where not ruined). Should look pretty good I think! Once I spray the spraypaint to create the effect, I'll let it dry and give it a good sanding to smoothen it out. Should look great!


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## Lilly

wow JohnnyL that is good looking. I've been trying to decide how I want to make my witch oven and i think i'll use this technique slightly dif though for the look i want thanks a bunch!!!
now did you use reg masking tape or painting tape, which would work best.


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## JohnnyL

I just used a spare type of "shipping" tape we had laying around (the brown clear stuff). I would imagine you'd want to use a strong tape to prevent the spray from creeping under too much. You might even get away with cutting a bunch of rectangles or shapes you want out of cardboard and laying them in place with a little tape behind them.


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## nicole

that is a really good idea. i bet it is gonna look awesome at night with all of the effect lighting and stuff.


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## JustMatt

Very nice. Two days.


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## Revenant

I think the "brick masking" idea would be the best -- after all, the shape of the mortar lines is determined by the shape of the bricks and how they're laid, not vice versa, right? So lay out the "bricks" and spray the mortar... how cool.

Johnny, yer a freekin jeenyis. Painting and carving in one simultaneous motion. Heh. I just love this board.


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## Bone Dancer

Bricks, skulls,stones,letters, ect. what ever shape you wanted to mask out. Truely an amazing idea. Thanks JL


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## Hellspawn

And to think I strayed away from using brick style pillars for my graveyard fence, there is still time!!!

Truely great work, your the man!


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## SkullAndBone

I think paint thinner does the same too. I bet it would be good to paint cracks with a brush.


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## Sickie Ickie

acetone eats styrofoam like there's no tomorrow.


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## Bone Dancer

If the paint thinner works it would seem that it would be faster then masking the foam and then painting. It would also allow a more free form for making rock walls. Worth a try anyway. Acetone (nail polish remover) may also work, ???


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## Cassie7

I've used contact cement to get texture on foam, but you'd have to use it with a very light touch because it eats the foam like mad!

I like the idea of masking the bricks and spraying the seams lightly with spray paint. It sounds quick and easy. Plus you'd have more control over the melting factor.


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## TommaHawk

Just read another thread, "finishing touches nazi", about layering and shading and colors, etc. Great thread and got me thinking...

...what if you painted your entire foam board in the stone patina you're going for - grays, blacks, reds, greens, etc., let it all dry, _then _mask and paint your groutlines? You'd have the bricks and stones all ready to go (in general), the grout paint would do its thing, eliminating having to touch up the lines if you were to paint the bricks later and got at all sloppy.

Of course, I apologize if I'm suggesting the blatently obvious, but I'll do mine this way 'cause it seems to eliminate a step or two. Cut out some cardboard or cardstock, weight them down a little and grout away.

Anyone/everyone done it this way?


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## Hallowennie315

WOW Great Idea! SUPER Simple!


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## Sickie Ickie

nail polish won't do it. not enough acetone. but pure acetone? You betcha!


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## Ghostess

TommaHawk said:


> Just read another thread, "finishing touches nazi", about layering and shading and colors, etc. Great thread and got me thinking...
> 
> ...what if you painted your entire foam board in the stone patina you're going for - grays, blacks, reds, greens, etc., let it all dry, _then _mask and paint your groutlines? You'd have the bricks and stones all ready to go (in general), the grout paint would do its thing, eliminating having to touch up the lines if you were to paint the bricks later and got at all sloppy.
> 
> Of course, I apologize if I'm suggesting the blatently obvious, but I'll do mine this way 'cause it seems to eliminate a step or two. Cut out some cardboard or cardstock, weight them down a little and grout away.
> 
> Anyone/everyone done it this way?


In theory, that would work great... except that most stone/brick walls have certain marks at the tops and bottoms of the stones/bricks - dirt, mold, rain stains, etc. Now, that's only important if you're going for realism. For fast and easy, yours is a GREAT solution!


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## Hellspawn

Ghostess said:


> In theory, that would work great... except that most stone/brick walls have certain marks at the tops and bottoms of the stones/bricks - dirt, mold, rain stains, etc. Now, that's only important if you're going for realism. For fast and easy, yours is a GREAT solution!


Im not convinced that with a couple, two three layers of latex paint that the spray paint will eat through, the latex would protect the foam from melting.


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## Ghostess

I wasn't talking about the foam getting eaten to make bricks, just the painting process made faster by what TommaHawk suggested. Latex bases are to KEEP the foam from getting eaten. Of course, the painting process probably should be in its own thread..lol


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## TommaHawk

Ah, right - I hadn't remembered that the latex would, probably, already be sealing the foam. I'll have to think about that... maybe it wouldn't work.

But to Ghostess' point - no reason you couldn't add a few color touches to your groutlines (and bricks) after they're sprayed and you remove the templates. It's the base-and-layers theme - stains and mold would come after the wall is built...


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## Zombie-F

Nice idea! I'm going to be re-doing my thunder columns this year to be easily broken down, lighter and more weather friendly, and this tactic should work nicely for both the brick and eaten away mortar.


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## Gory Corey

Why not lay out the grout lines with tape first, paint the foam with latex base layers, remove "grout" tape, then come back and spray with the devourer of choice afterwards?

Or did some one suggest that???

"Latex bases are to KEEP the foam from getting eaten" - not when using contact cement (personal experience) nothing will save you!


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## TommaHawk

Just so long as the "devourer" is clear, otherwise you'd be painting over your beautiful bricks.

Maybe the only good way to do this is to apply your templates, spray the grout, paint the bricks with latex, then color the grout and weather the whole thing. Order of Operations. Basically what this thread started with!


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## halloweengoddessrn

ok guys- i did this on large scale: its works great- I used plain ol construction paper for my bricks since I need LOTS of them. heres the pics:
























the finished product was painted with extreior semi-gloss latex- white back and gray all together an







d I used a piece of plastic to make the faux stone look


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## Bethene

Halloweengoddessrn, I like your pillars, realistic looking, plus relatively easy to make, a win, win!! great paint job!


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## Ghostess

I agree, nice job!


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## screaminscott

*masking the bricks*

In one of the Haunted Attraction Magazine issues, there was an article about painting brick patterns on wood. They used hardboard rectangles to mask the board from the gray spraypaint. These are heavy enough not to move, and are reusable


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## tonguesandwich

Maybe this has been mentioned. What about taking two size bricks and a paint tray of old paint. Stamping you pattern with your bricks (Take a few minutes) Hit it with the spray to create your foam eaten mortar lines. Over-spray is OK. Then you would takeanother color of latex paints and stamp over the brick patterns(covering overspray). You could use a different color than the first stamp. Depending on the texture of the stamp bricks, the different colors would create some serious textures along with some of the bricks that missed latex coverage and got eaten. Each wall would end up with its own character.


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## RAWR

so happy. this is such an amazing idea. ahh. i thaught i couldn't do anything with the white foam.


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## Gory Corey

One thing I did notice when updating the cemetery gates this year (added a 1/4 ply backer to make more rigid and mount hinges to) was that latex painted foam, can take a fair amount of spray or solvent without giving up too much.

When we rollered on contact cement onto the gate panel latex (faux wood finished) what did penetrate and eat up foam under the paint had a very brick face or cinderblock face texture to it. and it wasnt rampant, rather random.

I think as long as you latex paint is fully cured (a week maybe) you should be able to solvent eat the mortar pretty easy, without needing to protect the brick areas.

Food for thought!


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## Cassie7

Here we are months later and I'm still in love with this idea.


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## Whispers in the Park

Great job! I will have to try it out.


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## pyro

also for stone work use a heat gun and shape out the rocks, plus it hardens the foam alittle


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