That depends on how close to the rail road lines the house was. The major heating method was coal so soot may have tinged the bricks. I woud stay sublte with any weathering. If its not in the trenches of the Marne or the Somme you can stay pretty safe with subtle.

Your right subtle is the way to go, as it is after all only a backdrop for the airplane.Too fancy and it competes for the viewers attention.

Man I wish I had a camera lens that didn't create so much distortion.Anyway,here is where I am so far.The upper right bricks above the sill are as dark as I plan to go.The lower right is a little lighter and to the left of that lighter still.I have used JoSonja acrylic gouache paint.It is their Gold Oxide straight out of the tube, mixed only with plain tap water to a consistency of 5% milk.You could thin it out to about 2% but that is not necessary here as my base color is quite dark.The key here is to not get too dark too quickly,it is better to err on the side of leaving it too light and then darken individual bricks to the shade you prefer.(like the bricks you see on the left in the pic)You want contrast between individual bricks.I have always worked from light to dark to take advantage of the transparency factor afforded by gouache acrylics.It can be a little time consuming painting individual bricks darker but it saves trying to lighten them later.
When putting on your first coat be sure to paint the white brick edges that have not been already colored with a small round brush.Don't worry about getting it on the foam board as it has a surface that does not readily absorbed the paint, which is a real advantage here.(saves you having to grout the spaces between the brick) Any space that remains too white can be dealt with by applying a second watery coat.
The reason that I do the spaces now is if your do it later the edges may turn out too dark and spoil your work.
Pick a shade of color that you like as your base coat (which will end up being the lightest value on the wall)and randomly darken the rest until you are happy.Don't go too dark right away as acrylics will darken naturally as they dry,much like house paint.In fact I will let mine dry over night and do the finishing touches the following day.
If you plan to do dry brushing now would be the time to do so,I haven't yet decided myself. I may just weather them by flicking on some crud using my toothbrush technique and then use pastels to finish.So far I am happy with the result,I think that it looks like a 20-30 year old wall.

The grey stone blocks where given the 5% milk treatment using JoSonja gouache acrylic.I used their Nimbus Grey mixed with a touch of Raw Umber and water.I darkened down the seams using the same mix and a small round brush.Try not to get too much on the face of the stone.
I really like this textured watercolor paper when using thin coats ,as it almost eliminates the need for dry brushing.Remember however one heavy coat and your in trouble.Not all is lost however ,as you can still dry brush the texture back if need be ,using a lighter tint of the same color.This is an example of the great versatility of acrylics.
The grey stones still need a little pastel shading and some crud along the bottom.

I would suggest to those who don't want to go to all this effort to make a brick wall ,if you think it looks good enough for your purposes especially in the smaller scales,when I am finished you could make a copy of the wall and then use photobucket to play with the colors and adjust it to any scale you want.Have fun!

Note: if you want a great tutorial on making scratchbuilt cars or aircraft in brass see my modeling bud Ken Foran's thread over on SMC.He is the best!

http://www.scalemotorcars.com
Look under Large Scale Cars in the Forum.

Looking Good John!

I must say that I am at this point actually enjoying this however when I must repeat all this on the next facade things may change.

Very convincing tonal variation. If anything a little too subtle. Looking out
my window at some Edwardian brickwork it goes from brown/black through
red to pale orange (even on one brick!) that is nearly 100 years old though

You are right that is a very posh house. In Scotland at that time there would likely
be 20 families living in there. Even today probably 10!

The backyard would be a drying green. (Wet clothes pegged on the flying wires may be a touch to
far though

This link may interest you.
http://plato.acadiau.ca/courses/educ/reid/geometry/brick/bricklayer.html

Keep it up. I love dipping into your thread even if I'm not commenting all
the time .Inspiring.

How easy is it to screw up? Let me count the ways.
I think our brick layer came back to work after a liquid lunch and somehow screwed up the brickwork.I only noticed the following after taking the pics.The two rows of dark colored bricks on the R/H side of the dining room window,are not level with the left.
The easiest fix would be to make the whole thing three rows instead of two.The other would be to lighten the dark bricks with acrylics but that could lead to problems.Maybe I will try something with pastels.
The window sills will be only temporarily installed for two reasons,I may in future want to lay the facade flat on its face and two they are too vulnerable to being broken off.

This will make a great backdrop for taking pics.I am planning to do a series of "Public Enemies" vignettes using 1/18th scale cars.I am afraid that the museum won't be getting this diorama for awhile.
It has taken me a month to build half a wall and am only about 1/5th of the way along.I am hoping that now that the design part is mostly finished things will speed up a bit, however there now will be the boredom factor to contend with now that most of the creative bricklaying stuff is behind me.
Someone pointed out to me that the blocks/greystones at the foundation are not placed properly.I should have known better, that you never line the vertical seams up one on top of the other, as this only creates a weakness in the foundation.A quick fix would be to re-do the foundation blocks by gluing new block faces over the old ones, which would mean the blocks would not be quite flush with the brick wall.I think that some foundations may have been like this anyway.I will take a look around and see what is out there.I could try hiding it with vegetation etc..but the problem is I know its there.

Now that looks better!I simply glued new faces over the blocks.In fact I think that they look better now as the original blocks were too dark and uniform in color.The irregular look of the blocks along the bottom will be hidden behind the boardwalk.
Just before I finally install the facade I will get the old pastels out and create a few shadows etc..
For the next row house I will use a different colors for the brick as well as door and window trim, which will help to make the facades more interesting.I will do the same for the third row house even though only about a 1/4 of it will actually be seen.
A lot can be done later to breakup any uniformity in the backyards using small additions ,outbuildings and vegetation.

I know that some of you guys are asking yourself why does this guy keep on keeping on when he gets so little response to his work?
Is it the scale? or is the subject matter too far out of the mainstream? lack of interest? etc...
Well I know that it is none of these.How? By the number of hits I get, not only on the websites but on my photobucket and my photobucket albums.I average 150,000 hits a month on my photobucket and 1,000 album visits as well.
For some reason things really took off around last March and I still really don't know why.
The sites that I contribute to are all over the map,RR,car,airplane,figure,ship,diorama, armor and diecast.
I also understand that what the hell else can you say after making the same comments over and over(usually positive).I also know because of my workload I can't participate much on each of the individual websites but as I said in the beginning my main interest here is in promoting dioramas of all genres.Call it a labor of love I guess.
A special thanks to all those who have taken the time to express their opinions and comments to me directly, especially those offering their constructive criticism.
So now it is back to work! Cheers! John.

Dear John,
I truly feel with you. Yes your models are out of mainstream, the reason why I do appreciate them so.
Sorry for not giveing you the expected replay, but I am not a frequent forum poster.
Whatching all your updates, they are always a great source of inspiration for my own modelling. Your work is becoming more and more a guideline for me, as I started to built some modells in 1/16 scale.
I always adore your ideas how to find a solution for a particular problem without running to the store and buying an item. What you are doing is real modelling with outstanding craftmanship.
Please keep on sharing your work with us and accept my thanks for your postings I know how much work is there behind.
Best regards
Peter

One of the great by-products of doing art is how it makes you much more aware of your surroundings.I mean what is more mundane than a brick wall?
Really boring stuff right? I know that I never gave it much attention before actually building one.Now I find myself looking at the colors,the designs while driving down the road ,watching TV etc..Not only that but many old brick walls have a history if you look closely enough.Additions and subtractions made over the years.The builder never really being able to match the weathered color of the old brick.Windows and doors walled up which makes you wonder why?Additions of extra stories to a building,weathering,old signs for now non-existent products etc..etc.. There is a lot of our history tied up in brick walls for those who care to read it.
A lot of what we do as artists/craftsmen is "paying attention" to what has always been there.Most of us never really look at a flower until we come to paint it or an airplane until we come to build it or even a human face until we draw or carve it.

Many thanks to Kees(Varese2002) of The Aerodrome forum for the above picture ,which up until now I never knew existed.
It is a glass negative from the Chicago Daily News and it shows Mr J.E. Mair in his backyard at 3106 W Fullerton Ave Chicago in 1910.There is no record that it ever flew.Evidently the backyard is still there on Google maps.
Of course like so many other things that have happened to me while building these dioramas, this info has come to me just when I needed it.(strange but true)
My thoughts have recently been turning to the next step, the landscaping of the backyards.I see from the pic that the backyard is just like I thought it would be ,lots of mud in front and overgrown vegetation in the back.(Who the hell has got the time to worry about things like that when there are much more important things to be done?) Sound familiar?
I also noticed a smaller version of a boardwalk along the L/H fence line, which if I install it will have to run along the opposite fence due to the positioning of my figure in the composition.
Mr Mair and I have something in common, his backyard looks like my workshop/studio.Note the angle measuring device laying on the boardwalk's bottom left in the pic, and what looks like a yardstick on the ground under the wing.
Funny how he just had to install the pilots seat and control wheel even if it now gets in the way.Mr Mair must have sat behind that wheel many times during this build with wonderful dreams of flight running though his head.
Fifty years later and we were headed for the moon.Thanks Mr Mair.

Kees found me a third pic to go along with the other two.Mr. Mair is on the left in this pic the other man is unknown.
There is a lot of good info in this pic besides what our builder looks like.The front building facades confirm this to be a fairly well off neighborhood.I can't see a roof on the building but this could be a separate apartment building ,different from the row houses that I am building.
Some of the airplanes structure is shown but on first impression it looks like what you might expect ,a very primitive build.This has been identified as a copy of the Wright Flier but I beg to differ for many reasons.First and foremost is the square wingtips more reminiscent of a Curtiss design. I still believe that this was a true backyard flier of Mr Mair's own design, with a little Wright and Curtiss thrown in.(more on this later)
From the picture Mr. Mair looks like a young ,intense,intelligent man(look at the eyes)who got caught up in the excitement for aviation at the time.An early EAA'er for sure.
If you look closely above the upper wing you will see what looks like a porch or veranda probably from where the first two pictures were taken.
Note Miss Nosy Parker peering from behind the curtains,I guess there is one in every neighborhood.