I'll getting ready to paint a building which is brick. I'm looking for some suggestions on the paint I should use for the base brick color. I intend on spraying the building, then adding a thin wash of white to simulate the mortar followed by a light drybrush of the base color again to make the individual bricks stand out. Your input is appreciated in advance. Resp, John "delljohnb" Baugher
I picked up some Pollyscale Mineral Red to do bricks with. Its not nearly as intricate as what you want to do with your buildings, but for the moment, its working out ok for me. I was just brushing it on as I don't have any place to use my airbrush. I have the building there closer to completion with painting around the windows and things, so it doesn't look nearly so red. I'd like to see how your buildings come out when you're done.
I have used all the Floquil in a can colors and a city of just those tends to blend together quite well - BC red, tan, rail brown, chomemate primer (sort of BC red) even dark brown, weathering and concrete. (no green) You can even use some masking tape and white to simulate small sections of old windows, whitewash, etc.
I've had good luck with decorator spray paints from the hardware store. Some of them can attack plastics, though. I get around this by spraying extremely light coats.
Hello John; Krylon has several nice brick colors in spray cans (under $3.50) available at any Wal-Mart and are compatible with plastic. Keep your coats light and about 15 minutes apart (depending upon temp and humidity). After applying your wash, you'll really appreciate the results. Don't glop on the base color with a brush; comes out way too thick and definitely looks like a model toy. David
I like to do a base coat of one color and then mix that same color with others and do a lot of dry brushing for a more uneven look. It depends on if you want a uniform new brick look or a aged mixed look.
Painting DPM buildings, I generally do the windows first. Then, I like to use warm earthy colors (Poly S) like Earth, Rust, Dirt, applied with a brush, on the bricks. Takes a little time but I get good separation with the windows from the bricks. Then, weather as desired.
Depends on your time period. Bricks are heavy and in the early days and maybe up until about 1960 or so were usually not transported very far so local clay sources were used and because of this had a more or less uniform color. After 1960 and the Interstate Highway System it was easier to ship brick products father. So you can expect to find a more diversified coloration. Since then colors have been blended in with the clay before the brick is fired and even more diversification can be found. Having several buildings with the same brick color especially if they are the older buildings will do a lot to establish the feeling of local product being used. One more thing don't use white for your mortar. Instead use a grayish brown. A good color is the Ceramcoat acryllic paint called "mudstone argile' #02488 that can be found in any Walmart or arts and crafts stores.
I have had good luck with Boxcar Red, Mineral Red, Burnt Umber and Earth Red from Floquil and Testors Model Master racks.
Is that one of those "Apply Barrel" colors? Thwy come in a squirt bottle? I have used this brand quite a bit on balsa/wood buildings.
I prefer earth tones for brick I agree. These brick buildings are from DPM and Walthers modular kits. All the brick is hand painted using Polly Scale earth tones. I airbrushed the Walthers modular windows on the sprue. With a good brush, painting the DPM windows is fairly easy. After painting, I dulled everything with a dirty wash shot through the airbrush.
The color of bricks varies from location to location, time in the kiln, time of exposure to the elements and mix of materials used. I would not use a very vibrant color unless you want the building to look brand new. For the mortar Be VERY careful. I have found the following to be a successful method, but it can done with paint or what I used. I took a very small amount of Durham's Rock Hard Putty, and made a very thin wash. I added just the tiniest amount of white paint to lighten the naturally sand color. I then brushed it onto the wall (best done BEFORE assembly) and let it run into every mortar channel on the wall. Before it dried, I took a slightly wet kitchen sponge and brushed the surface of the brick to wipe away the mortar mix on the brickface. Let it dry overnight. Repeat as many times as required.
This is a Walthers module piece that I painted with one of the acrylics from Walmart. I then put a Mortar wash on it. The wash is a product from Robert's Products. Caboose Hobbies Inc, Model trains, Model Railroaders, Toy Trains, Model Railroading, Garden Railways, Lionel, Bachmann, Modeling Supplies
Having seen Geeky's work in person, I can tell you his method is very realistic. I know he takes alot of time and pride in his work on his structures and his work reflects it. Eric
As a ceramic engineer, I would like to echo this comment and another about the variation of brick color. Bricks were seldom shipped very far and as has been said the color depended on the local clay, the kilns, the coal or other fuel used in the kilns, the kiln fireman, as well as age and environment. Therefore variation of color was a constant problem in the brick industry and is why one sees new additions to buildings are often a different color. More recently, brick manufacturers add additional colorants, iron and manganese oxide as well as kiln atmosphere control to obtain a more constant color or achieve new desired colors.
Just fyi, we had a similar discussion a while back I'm a big fan of the spray bomb method. My first DPM paint job. - TrainBoard.com
The school I went to was built during the depression. The base brick color was tan, but there were a number of brown/red bricks mixed in. I find this quite common in older buildings in the upstate NY area. Frank
