Carving An Old French House From A Block Of Styrofoam 

Thanks, painting it was soooo much fun!

Interesting. Why would this be if you know?

@@mpk6664 Honestly I'm not sure. I think it was firing techniques may have been different. I think also modern brick sizing which seems to have stabilised around the late 1800s is more robust, there seems to be less cracking of the bricks. But then again I look at the amazing Flemish brick castles and they're standing up just fine :)

@@mpk6664 The width is determined by the fact that it is necessary to hold it easily with one hand The height & length less so important & seemed to be very similar from roman times up until the late 1700s. These were all hand made, so the weight may have been a factor. The main initial reason for the size change in England at least was (according to the Architects Journal), how a new property tax was based on the number of bricks used in a building. Therefore bricks got bigger - so fewer were used. Then parliament taxed larger bricks more, and bricks got smaller again. Eventually the tax was scrapped, and brick size was regulated to 3 or 4 courses per foot depending on location. It remained much the same from 1851 when mass production was started until the metric system was introduced.

Common house bricks in Australia using the metric measurement like most bricks of a similar dimension use a common height (Guage) where they are based off a 2.4m ceiling height. A brick is 76mm + 10mm for a mortar joint (86mm guage) multiply by 7 = 602mm, rounded down to 600mm multiply by 4 = 2.4m . A brick is 230mm in length, divided by 2 = 115mm, half a brick is 110mm. the missing 10mm, 110 + 110 = 220 + 10mm = 230mm is the mortar joint for the perpend (vertical joint). Ergo, a brick is 110 x 76 x 230mm, this is to allow for bonding of the bricks to maintain correct load bearing (half bond) and to enable the half bond to transition a corner. Regardless of bricks being dry pressed (solid, with the indentation called a frog, or extruded, known as wire cut with the holes), bricks can vary up to 10mm in any dimension due to the manufacturing process and how long they are fired for. Hope this helps to understand common brick sizes and dimensions. In bricklaying, we can use a template called a Brick Rod, a length of timber 25x25x2400mm and marked at the appropriate guage, be this bricks, block work etc so to recap, a brick is 230mm + joint 10mm = 240mm, an opening is 240mm + 10mm (the mortar joint at the other end of the brick) = 250mm. The same in the vertical dimension, 10 + 76 + 10mm (the brick and two mortar beds). Again hopefully this helps, especially when you are calculating the size of openings (3D printed windows etc) when working to your scale.

When I looked up common brick sizes in the US there are about 8 common sizes based on 3 or 4 per foot of height. Hey metric is legal here. So no metric jokes. With a 3/8ths allowance for mortar height is 2-5/8 or 3-5/8. Length and widths vary from Econo, 3-5/8 x 3-5/8 x 7-5/8 to widths pretty standard at 3-5/5 and lengths up to 11-5/8. I've been messing with laser engraving brick patterns in HO scale*. The Econo sized bricks are easy to plan out. Best for industrial walls. Residential or business walls are better with longer bricks. One issue with longer bricks is the corners. I can actually cut the brick courses on the ends of the walls and then match fit them on corners. 1mm thick material is pretty close to the scale 3-5/8 plus mortar. Only using illustration board leaves a surface that is very fragile that needs to be re-enforced with some sort of binder. The first ones I actually started with was cinder block embossed into illustration board or 3/32 Basswood. 3/32 comes almost dead on for the 8" height and width. *inspired by ITLA wall modules.

Balsa is approximately 50% wood fibers /50% air. It burns like nothing else.

That's a cool trick, might work for the harder veneer wood!

@@NightShiftScaleModels don’t night shift. Balsa wood is the type of wood that is most flammable, I don’t recommend it

Wow seeing Nigel Saunders on a Night Shift video... What a fantastic crossover :D

The mild torching works well for “singeing” chickens too. Gets rid of the pin feather fuzzies, lol.

Brick train station, yummy

@@NightShiftScaleModels small switch house, definitely a troubling task

One of the most therapeutic modeling techniques :)

You've got the most important part done, and the rest should be heaps of fun! It's so important to have a sketch in front of you, it makes everything much easier

I wanted to make it extra tall because in the T29 diorama, the whole barn got hidden behind the tank :D

That must look sweet!