Turn Foam Into a Hyper-Realistic Brick Wall Model

Bricks are one of the most common building materials out there. And luckily, for people who are interested in dioramas and scale models, it's also one of the easiest materials to imitate on a small scale.

In this Instructable, we will sculpt an old and damaged brick wall out of foam, and in a second stage, paint it to make it look hyperrealistic. So without any further ado, let's get into it!

• Some XPD or High-Density Modeling Foam (more on those in the next step)
• A ruler
• A sharp cutter or scalpel
• A toothpick
• A rectangular stick of wood or balsa
• A stone with a rough texture
• Acrylic paints
• Scenery foam

If you wish to experience the joy of building a brick diorama without having to get your hands dirty, here's a 12-minute video just for you!

There are a lot of different types of foams on the market, but for the use of model-making, two main ones are used:

• Extruded Polystyrene aka XPS
• High-Density Modeling Foam

The first one is a lot cheaper and is actually mainly used as insulation to keep houses warm. It's not really ideal for model making, as it makes ugly burrs when cut with a dull blade. On the plus side, it's very easy to get your hands on some, as you can find it in most building material stores.

If you have a bigger budget, I would recommend you use some modeling foam - it's very dense and when cut, the edges will stay nice and clean. However, it's a bit harder to get - I got mine from a local art supply store.

Cut the joints of your bricks using a very sharp blade, to avoid burrs.

There are multiple brick-laying patterns that exist: the running bond (the one I used) being the most common and cheapest to produce. Think about where and when your wall was built: is it a warehouse, a mansion, a garage, or a school? Choose your pattern accordingly.

For my running bond pattern, I gave the bricks a height of 5 mm (1/4 inch) and a width of 1 cm (25/64 in).

Use a ruler to make sure all the joints line up.

Something pointy like a toothpick or a pencil can be used to go over the joint lines to widen them and to give a little chamfer on the edges of the bricks.

If your wall is old and damaged, chances are, all the bricks aren't on the same plane. To give them character, you can use a little rectangular piece of wood, to press in some of the bricks. Try to give them different depths while making sure not to overdo the illusion.

Using a cutter, you can add some cracks to your wall. You can make the crack wider in some parts, to show that some of the bricks have already had time to disintegrate near the crack.

Bricks are fragile and when left out in the wild, they will chip. Using a cutter, remove some parts of some random bricks to make them look abused.

Using a stone, you can quickly add some additional texture to your wall. Different stones will give different results, so try them out on a scrap piece of foam to see which one looks the best. I settled on a lava stone.

When working on the wall, rotate the stone each time you make an imprint, to avoid having any repeating patterns.

If your miniature wall will need to be seen from the sides, repeat the same steps there as well.

And that's it! All the sculpting is now done, and we're ready for the painting!

Cover the whole piece with a thin layer of gray paint. That will make applying textures easier later, as, in the parts that won't get covered by any color, the neutral gray will look much better and more realistic than the white foam we used to make the wall.

Also, it's with this step that we are coloring the joints between the bricks.

In the big cracks, you can use a darker shade of gray, to have more depth.

And now it's finally time for the part that will either make or break the illusion: adding the textures!

Use a dry sponge to carefully dab some paint on top of the bricks, without pressing too hard, to avoid the paint from going into the joints.

Make the first layer using the main color of your bricks, in my case it was orange. Try to incorporate different shades of that main color, by adding some white or black paint to your mix. This will give some variation to your wall.

In some parts where we previously cut away parts of the bricks, the sponge wasn't able to color the inside of the bricks. Use a fine brush to color these gaps the same color that the rest of the bricks.

Now, while that first layer is still wet, add some other colors on top, again, using the sponge.

As a little advice, choose colors that match the initial color of your bricks. For example, for the orange wall, I added some purple, brown, yellow, and red areas. Then, for the bricks near the ground, I added some green to show the mold that is slowly trying to conquer the wall by expanding from its humid and cold kingdom near the ground.

Make those additions happy little accidents, do not cover the whole wall with that new color, only add it in some areas. The main thing we are going after with this step is variation: even though the bricks are all part of the same wall, they all have had a different history. Some bricks that are closer to the ground have been in a more humid environment for decades, while the bricks in the middle may have been hit more by a football used by the kids from the block. Maybe there's a pothole on the road nearby and all the passing cars used to splash water on part of the wall. All those bricks are different, try to show that with your painting skills!

To give the bricks more depth, we can use a method called dry brushing. For that, load up the tip of your brush with white paint, then, put most of it down on your palette. Now, your brush should be almost dry - it should leave scratchy streaks when used. Now, with a brush like that, you can gently go over the highest points of the bricks, to make them stand out.

Be careful to not overdo this step, you can also use some light orange to have a less pronounced effect.

As a last little detail, you can add some moss in some of the cavities in the bricks, to give them that extra touch. For that, there are special scenery foams available on the market - just add a dab of superglue, and glue the moss in place.

I made a quick cover for my wall to hide the white foam on the top. For that, I used balsa wood that I crushed with the lava stone, before gluing it together and painting it to have the same damaged appeal as the rest of the wall.

And here we have it! A miniature brick wall, that looks realistic and was very easy and quick to do.

Thank you for reading and have a nice day! :)