SCRATCHBUILD LINTELS, SILLS AND CORNERSTONES

I’ve been trying my hand at scratchbuilding a number of brick and stone lineside buildings using Wills textured plastic sheets. Cutting out window apertures and doorways has been the most challenging aspect, but I’m wondering if you have any tips for adding stone lintels and cornerstones. I’ve seen packs of brick arches and cornerstones in the Wills and Ratio ranges, but they’re not quite right for my buildings.

Harold White, by email

Chris Nevard says: When I built a layout based around Greenock Princes Pier locomotive depot in 2021 (MR288), a number of small buildings had to be created from scratch. I also employed Wills plastic sheet for the main structure, as the brickwork has a nice, slightly random texture to it – perfect for an aged masonry look.

The Wills packs of cornerstones – or quoins – are better suited to larger buildings, so I made use of thin styrene strip (around 0.030in/0.762mm thick), of a width that matched the depth of the Wills brick courses as closely as possible. The Evergreen or Slaters styrene strip, available from all good model shops, was simply to cut to length to form decorative bricks for the corners, plus the edges of the window and door apertures.

Wider styrene strips were also employed, cut to form lintels and windowsills. The styrene is easy to bond to the wall sections, with liquid poly cement, applied with a fine brush for neatness. It takes a little time to cut and install all of the individual bricks and fittings but, once the model was painted, the effort proved to be totally worthwhile.