Ztrains: Z Scale And Artistic License

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How Big Should A Z Scale Brick Be?
There are many ways to create brick walls in Z scale but to my eye, hand scribed stone achieves a crucial level of authenticity. There was some genuine conflict on my part designing the masonry walls for my new Z scale layouts. I had to weigh being true to the prototype brick against capturing the feel of real bricks. When I created properly scaled bricks I was satisfied, not with the look of the bricks but with the fact that they were accurately sized (see chart below). When I broke the rules of how big a Z scale brick should be, I was much more satisfied artistically with the look and feel of the piece. These bricks looked like bricks, right down to their shadows and textures.

In the case of the brick and masonry walls being created for my layouts I'll be using a custom mix of high strength hydrocal, a member of the white gypsum cement family for the initial scribing. A two part resin is sometimes used for duplicating these stone masters, but for the original piece I like to use hydrocal as it has a terrific texture. Individual bricks are hand scribed into a blank hydrocal panel creating a single sheet, or wall, of bricks. A mold, or a negative impression of that wall, is then made using an RTV (room temperature vulcanization) rubber. Hydrocal or resin is poured into this mold creating a new brick wall identical to the original. At this point the actual design and construction of the buildings can begin. These casts from the RTV mold are tailored to fit the needs of the individual buildings.

Many of my layouts are to be set near water on the East Coast of the United States, roughly between 1900 and 1940, at the height of the steam era. Examining buildings from this geographic region and era would be useful in gaining a better sense of this period. Cold Spring Harbor, New York is a good choice for this as it was a whaling village in the mid 1800's. Being a historic port has saved it from much of the contemporary construction of the mid to late 20th century. Most of the buildings along Main Street served this once nautical community and range in age from 75 to 200 years old, an ideal model on which to pattern my steam era brick work. I live a few blocks from Main Street and have always admired the historic feel of this town.

Armed with a digital caliper, I went into town to measure some bricks and make a few sketches. From building to building I found quite a bit of variation in both the size of the brick and the thickness of the mortar lines. Bricks ranged in size from 2" to 3.25" high, and from 7" to 8.5" long. Mortar thickness also varied quite a bit. The horizontal mortar lines were between .5" and .75", while the vertical mortar lines ran from .5" to well over 1". It was interesting to see just how much variation there was in the stone work.

Artistic License
You can see how these real world (1:1) brick sizes translate to Z scale (1:220) in the chart above. With these numbers in hand I created a test sheet of bricks accurately sized for Z scale in Adobe Photoshop, then printed out a high resolution copy. It was then I discovered I'd be exercising a little artistic license in my masonry work. While these were accurate Z scale bricks, I felt they were just too small to be fully enjoyed when viewed from a typical viewing distance, say 12" to 36". I also wanted to emphasize two main elements of these brick walls, shadow and texture. I felt that at this prototypical size, there was simply not enough depth in the mortar lines to create effective shadows. Since real bricks are not perfectly symmetrical or smooth, I felt the texture of the bricks was also lost at this size.

On to the artistic license. I created several blank hydrocal panels and scribed multiple brick variations into them, altering the height and width of the bricks as well as varying the mortar line dimensions. For these tests I used the two part resin for the casts. I'd then paint and weather these test brick sections and place them on a layout for evaluation. The real challenge is in making these bricks believable as bricks, both in macro shots from a digital camera as well as to the naked eye from the viewing distance of between 12" and 36".

Brick Uniformity
I've examined bricks from model train manufacturers for a couple of months now, and almost without fail they are all sized a bit differently, even within the same scale. I've found many models that use brick sizes that are larger then they "should" be, Z scale bricks are often N scale size, and N scale bricks are often HO scale size. I imagine many of these manufacturers went through a variation of what I've done here, and that is by trial and error to create an authentic look and feel using a real brick as a guide, not as a rigid model for precise duplication. Particularly in Z scale I find that prototypical accuracy is not as important as a compelling representation.

There are some Z scale layout elements that I think should be made as close to prototype as possible such as a door, a window or a car. The eye can more readily sense if these are correctly scaled, and not representing these elements accurately can jeopardize the believability of an entire scene. An element such as a brick, a tree or a patch of grass can have more variation though. As long as it's framed, or surrounded by accurately sized elements, there is a natural mechanism in our senses that tells us it's correct.

Wrestling with prototypical accuracy is an unavoidable fact of Z scale model railroading. I'm currently producing a new series of scribed brick panels, these new test bricks will be a bit smaller than those pictured above. The goal is to achieve a brick as close to the prototype as possible without sacrificing the detail and texture of the slightly larger brick, it's an interesting balance. Even though we may have to temper our ideal of complete prototypical accuracy when using a larger brick (or tree, or patch of grass), we gain depth, shadow and texture, all of which can evoke strong emotional responses. I feel these emotional components are far more important than pure numeric precision.

Monday, August 9, 2010

Elevated or “EL” Model Railroading