Sometimes one has the misfortune to acquire a set of blocks that you don't even want to touch. Back in the 50s and 60s, a bath once a week was the norm (and we were healthier for it), but sometimes you find sets that look like they were played with (or something) by kids who bathed in used motor oil, if at all. Sometimes you pay a lot for More Blocks, and you don't want to lose any! Here are some techniques I've come up with for reclaiming them. Almost all of the blocks in the photo below are reclaimed grotties.
Before you go another step, you need to get the blocks as clean as possible. I recommend a soak in very hot water with bleach added. Leave them to soak for half an hour and dry. That's a clean as they're going to get.
PAINTING
GROTTY BLOCKSThe most obvious thing to do with grotty blocks is to paint them. I use Tamiya paints; a mix of Titanium Silver and Titanium Gold gives a nice neutral color that goes with just about everything. Bronze Tamiya paint is good for making brownstones, like the one at left.
What I've taken to doing is painting one face and side the silver/gold mixture and the other face and side bronze, then I have whatever I want in quantity.
Remember, these paints will rub, so coating them with Tamiya Clear is a good idea. Coating the lighter ones with Tamiya Smoke gives nice depth to lighter colored blocks.
The only problem, if one might call it that, with painting blocks is that you expect (okay, I expect) a little more visual interest than I usually get by this method. There is a way to enhance the interest, though, and give a bit of texture.
Below I will describe a method of metal-leafing blocks. Metal leaf kits come with a "sealer," which one is supposed to spray onto the metal after it's on the piece. Alas, while the metal takes to it well, the styrene the blocks are made of do not. If you look at the clear blocks on the right side of the picture at the top, you'll notice that some of them are frosted. That's what happened when I decided to spray some metalized blocks after I'd already put them into a building. (Not to worry--these "frosted glass" blocks come in extremely handy! Clear Blocks are kind of precious, but you'll find plenty of uses for frosties as well.)
If you want to try this, paint your blocks and allow them to dry for at least a day. When you spray metal leaf sealer on Tamiya-painted blocks (haven't tried any other kind of paint), the paint seems to separate; it sparkles more and takes on an interesting texture, like a dirty limestone.
You may want to try your technique on a few particularly hopeless grotties before you decide to go ahead with this.
If you have grotties whose only flaws are perhaps some rounded corners, or a piece chipped off one side, or the fact that someone has written on them with a Sharpie (I recently acquired a set which was evidently the non-joint property of Bobby and Freddie, who wrote their names on full bricks and made dice out of halves...), you can get much satisfaction out of applying metal leaf. Real silver and gold leaf? Nah, don't bother. The faux stuff is just fine. I use silver and gold leaf for decorative accents, "blue," "green," "dawn," and "black" for fancy walls (they're all just flamed copper and not actually the colors mentioned), and what I do with all the leftover bits is my favorite of all: faux granite!
Reserve metal leafing for blocks that still have good surfaces, because leafing will highlight every flaw. Don't try to get away with sanding the surface (that will only make it worse) unless you're prepared to sit around with a Dremel tool and a buffing wheel and polish them up again.
If
you'd like to try this technique, here is what you'll need:
Leaf itself comes, as I've mentioned, in many colors and types. Get them all, why not! If you can only get one, I recommend "Dawn," which has subtle gradations of colors and goes with everything.
You'll also need the glue, which seems to be mostly latex. There's probably some other additive because this lasts a lot longer in the bottle than regular latex does.
To apply the glue, a fairly stuff, flat-edged brush works best for me.
I apply the glue, the thinnest possible coat is best. Do not allow the glue to pool. The best tack is to paint the block as if you're trying to use the brush to take the glue off the block, not put it on. Apply to one long and both short sides of the block.
Allow the block to dry thoroughly. This is absolutely essential; if you have any pooling of glue on the block and cover it in metal, the glue will never dry and will eventually cause the leaf to wear off or stick to adjacent blocks.
In
order to put the leaf on, lay the long side of the brick on the leaf,
glue down of course, then pick it up. You'll pick up the brick and
the whole sheet of leaf. Use your fingers to attach leaf to the two
short sides, then gently pull the sheet of leaf away.
Rub the leaf flat (or as flat as the surface of the block allows) with your fingers. If you've let the glue dry enough, you can rub surprisingly hard. You'll find yourself rubbing off excess leaf. Keep this stuff (I have it in the styrene box at the back of the photo which might or might not be at left).
If you find that you've missed a spot, never fear. Just touch the missed spot to another piece of leaf, rub into place, rub off excess, and you'll never know anything was missing.
Now it's time to seal the blocks. Sealing is extremely important here because the sheet of leaf is so thin, it can wear off in an instant. As I mentioned before, don't use the Sealer (either spray or bottle) that comes with the kit, if you bought a kit. I use Tamiya Clear paint. Two coats gives an excellent seal. Allow to dry thoroughly before using the blocks.
Now, the fun part!
While metalized bricks are nice, you don't really see such things in a lot of buildings. What you do see is a lot of granite. You can simulate granite, to a degree, with the painting technique mentioned above. But this technique is, I think, way cooler!
In
order to do this, you should have a stock of leaf bits of varying
sizes and colors. This is generally very easy to do with most kinds
of leaf, but I've found that regardless of what other colors you
have, the whole effect is better in the end if you have a good amount
of silver leaf in the mix.
To coat the block, just set it down in a pile of leaf-litter, and roll it around, making sure all except the back surface is covered. The result will look like your poor block was scared by a chia pet.
I
use a stiff brush at first to remove leaf-litter from a leaf-littered
block. You can reuse it until it's gone. Once you've gotten off all
the leaf-litter the brush will remove, then you can go at the whole
thing with your fingers. Rub hard and get everything off until you
are left with as smooth a surface as possible.
Alas, with this technique, you'll get Smooth, But Not Smooth Enough. A couple coats of Tamiya will take care of this. I prefer to use Tamiya transparent Smoke color. It gives great depth to the block, and fills in the cracks beautifully.
Okay,
now this I can pretty much guarantee will be a very rare sight on a
building, but it shouldn't be!
I got the idea for this when the highway along one side of the property was being repaved. A large truck came out and painted white and yellow stripes. Then a smaller truck came out and dropped these little glass microbeads onto the paint. At just the right angle, a beautiful rainbow appeared!
They always put down way more of these than are actually needed for the purpose, and you can gather up the excess (as I did) if you want to really make the neighbors wonder about you. You can also slip a guy a fiver in exchange for a handful of beads straight out of the bag.
Or, I found out a year later, you can order them online in different colors (though in a somewhat larger size). I like my ways of getting them better.
When
you make these, I've found that there are seven types you'll need:
Long-Side Only
Full Lefts (long side and left short side)
Full Rights (long side and right short side)
Corner Lefts (half of a long side and its adjacent short side)
Corner Rights (ditto, right side)
Half Lefts (left half of a long side only)
Half Rights (you get the idea).
To get started, you need the beads, some contained thing (an old box in my case) in which to spread out a layer of the beads, and some Tamiya paint (or any other paint) to use as a glue, and something to use as a top seal (I prefer Krylon Clear Glaze).
A word of warning before we go any further: These things shed. From beginning to end, no matter how thoroughly you seal them, glass beads will shed all over the place. This can be a problem if you have very slick floors. So... I warned you.
Cover whatever parts of your grotty block that you want to sparkle with paint. I usually use Titanium Gold because it gives the bricks an extra shine, but I use other colors as well. You want the brick surface covered but not too thickly. You can let the paint dry a tiny bit, but not too much.
You
should have some beads ready to use. Pour them into a box, and shake
them into a smooth layer. To coat the block, just lightly touch the
painted surface to the beads. For maximum sparkly, you want a
single layer of beads. (Also, as I'm sure you're aware, keep in mind
that the sparkle is light-angle dependent. You won't see if from
every view. As yet I have never been able to make a wall large
enough to show the rainbow effect I saw on the road.)
The single layer is important. You can add other layers, but the more you add, the less the whole will sparkle. On the other hand, you get a nice texture...
Carefully set the block down and allow it to dry completely. Once the paint is completely dry, spray the sparkly surfaces with a sealer. The Krylon clear I use does not affect sparkly at all. I've tried Tamiya clear and it does mute the sparkle a bit.
Again, allow to dry thoroughly.
Once dry, I use a pocketknife to carefully remove any beads that stick up from the top or sides and would otherwise prevent the blocks from fitting together properly. And now you're ready to go.
I've like me you're greedy and/or cheap, you can collect fallen beads, soak them in a small bottle of Tamiya thinner for a while to get the excess paint off, and use them all over again.
I have had beads that both included road-shmutz and didn't, and I've found that for some reason, especially if you use a clear or white paint as your initial glue, the road-shmutz beads give a nicer look.
If you're like me, Clear Blocks are about as precious as the One Ring. The first Block City set I ever got to play with only had six of them, and I used to bribe my brothers and cousins to go elsewhere so I could have them all to myself. I think I've only built one building so far in which I didn't use every clear block I own. But sometimes, you do get some that have been Through The Wars.
You can sometimes polish them back into respectability, but if they are too deeply gouged, you might try clear paint or spray to get them back into shape. You can also bead them (you can see a couple of beaded ones in the section above), or spray them with metal leaf sealer to frost them if all else fails.
One major problem with clear blocks is that expose to light (and cigarette smoke, I suspect) will yellow them. I have a few in my collection that are nearly amber.
Alas, I have found no way to reverse this. When I do get some truly colorless clear blocks, I keep them in a black plastic box and only allow them exposure to light as part of a building.