Putting brick Plastikard on the walls

James asked "A question though. When I scratch build I sort of work backwards from the brickwork, to avoid odd edges and corners where the bricks seem only an inch wide. How do you go about making up the brick panels to add to a kit like this? Do you only do it after you've built the structure?"

I suspect the answer is "I cheat" or more likely, "I don't do it properly". Working on the basis that there is always a wall nearest the viewer, this one gets the bricks stuck on first with a slight overlap around the edge.

The others are then covered with the plastic butting up to the overlap and given a good wash of solvent (the plastic is stuck to the MDF with solvent-free UHU, never use a glue with solvent) to ensure a nice tight join.

Finally, I trim the overlap back to the edge. If I were proper finecale, I'd then cut the mortar horizontal lines before painting, but I reckon that most of the time I can get away without doing this. Maybe if the building is right at the front, but the work needs to be neat or it will look worse than the 1mm thick blank spot. Personally, I think a bit of dirt will help and perhaps a drainpipe to distract the eye.

Another option (I've not tried this) would be to leave loads of overlap, scribe along the edge and then band the plastic back at 90 degrees so it wraps around the model. A wash of solvent to soften it might be a good idea and you'd need to be careful not to scribe all the way though which will be tricky.