Can I make a small suggestion Craig? How about printing a strip of brick in resin, painting it like you want, and leaving it outside for a month? Maybe your schedule doesn’t permit that, I don’t know. But for longevity, I’m not quite sure I’d trust that large of a resin construction to maintain much structural integrity for a long period outdoors, at least without a primary inner structure backing it up.
Take it for what it’s worth, which might not be much…
Cliff
One more thought…
In addition to lasering and 3d printing, there’s CNC routing. You might consider getting a cheap one and route PVC board in sections. That would get your wonderful brickwork transferred to a reliable and really gluable and long-lasting substrate that is also manually carveable.
Just a thought.
And Christmas is coming up…
The school I work at has a CNC router in the shop. I need to ask the teacher if he would be willing and able to cut me stuff if I provided PVC wood. The thing I was worried about is finding a bit that’s .013-017" that would work.
How thick will your primer and paint coats be? Because you’ll need to account for those in the router bit diameter. Say, 5 thou X a minimum of two layers, X both sides of the joint, and you’re adding .02 to the bit diameter.
Might try .8mm / .031", which is available for the smaller routers.
I don’t know what your thicknesses will be, but it might be worth a check. Because after all that work, you don’t want your paint to just fill it all in. 
Huh. Guess that’s something I hadn’t thought about yet. Something to take into account for 3d prints as well.
Well Cliff you got me thinking and digging around in my old work emails.
Found an email from the other shop teacher that does the laser stuff… He said he cuts acrylic , fabrics, paper and wood with different depths based on the path and can set up various power levels.
So maybe I’ve got 2 options available.
Or even a FDM print too… but I’m not a big fan of fdm prints.
That’s great you have options Craig.
It would be awesome if someone took a nicely detailed worst-case chunk, and put it thru as many processes as practical. Then compare for strength, detail, UV, paintability, setup PITA-factor, cost, finishing…
I know, big effort, but just thinking down the road. In the mean time, it’ll be great to hear about all you learn.
I’m impatiently waiting to hear back from the shop teachers to see what’s available… Also found out that I can get a student/teacher copy/account of AutoCad. Not that I need to learn another CAD program as I’m happy with Onshape right now.
Alright Dan, I already know your a show off 
Sweet! How’d you do it?
Sorry Cliff, Pm’d back and forth with Craig this AM and forgot to elaborate here. Printed with brick red filament, slapped on some grey paint, wiped it off and sanded lightly when dry. Bricks are 2.4mm h x 9.8 w with .5mm grout lines .5mm deep.
Really nice. Did you print it vertically as shown, or flat (in 2 panels that you glued together)?
I’m thinking the former; and that the droopy lower edges of the bricks was a side benefit of the filament trying to print out it space, right?
Thanks Cliff. You are correct! I could probably tweak to reduce the droop but also it kind of adds something. I think I prefer it to perfect grout lines. 
I have to give credit to you folks that carve/emboss foamed PVC. I did just a small test section and it seems overwhelming to attempt a large structure this way. And I say that as someone who likes another tedious process of making track.
Verticals where a flat bladed screw driver and the horizontal was a utility knife.
Maybe a dull pizza wheel and straight edge for the horizontals? But the verticals would be the huge time consumer I suppose…
Interesting idea Dan, nice and self-indexing. Were you thinking soldered brass?
I wonder if several bricks worth of ridges could be 3d printed on a block, and then tapped or pressed down into the sintra?
Not sure if the material (PLA I’d expect) would hold up, but if it did one could make several embosser-blocks, each having slightly different irregularities.
Could 3d print in stainless at shapeways, which would hold up to hammering / pressing, but pretty expensive.
Or… a brass plate, small and thick enough to hammer on. Solder on round or square rod in brickish patterns, and bang your way across the panel.
Just thinking out loud, FWIW
As opposed to a press on pad maybe with a 3D printer you could get an embossing wheel made to run an infinite row of brick. Just a thought
