I am planning to start a brick building with concrete trim, foundation etc. In the past I have spent alot of time painting and finishing such a building. It has occurred to me, why not paint the building a rattle can tan color and use a colored pencil for the brick which should leave well defined mortar lines. Weathering could be with other colored pencils, india ink alcohol mix and pastels.
Any advice on the color for the spray can for concrete? Any advice on the process?
I have not painted a brick colored building but I have foud it does wonders to add mortar. Everyone develops their own method. I just put a little paint on the tip of my finger and rub it on the wall. That squeegees it into the depresions leaving a thin film on the brick that looks good to my eyes.
Hmm. I don’t believe I have ever seen a rattle can with concrete color paint in it. They might exist, but I don’t know where you could find one. I use Floquil or Poly scale concrete paint in bottles and brush it on. Tan will make an OK mortar color although I prefer a very light gray. You might want to test out how your colored pencils work on top of tan paint, on a piece of scrap before committing to the process for the entire building. Hand penciling all the brick on a building sounds kinda tedious to me.
I do red brick buildings with a rattle can of red auto primer. Looks like brick, and it dries really really flat. For mortar I use a thin wash of light gray paint, it runs into the mortar lines, and I wipe it off the brick work exposing the red. I then brush paint things like window sills and lintels in concrete or stone color.
Testor’s “Flat Light Aircraft Gray” makes a nice concrete color. When I do a brick building, I paint the wall Floquil “Boxcar Red,” which makes a nice brick color. Next I take some cheap gray poster paint, and brush it all over the wall and wipe it off with a paper towel. This fills in the mortar lines and gives the building a nice tint.
Here’s a Model Power “Railroad Hotel” kit I did using this method. However, I skipped the boxcar red paint because the stock brick color looked good to me.
Dusting of off-white rattle can paint. Do not fully coat the gray, just dust it to give it a weathered look. Let this dry for a day to make sure it isn’t sticky.
Using a foam brush, I lightly dab the brush in a yellow or tan colored paint, and lightly “stamp” the brick walls. You don’t need a lot of paint to do this (think drybrushing, very similar as far as paint volume). Keep the brush parallel to the wall when you do this, as it will prevent paint from getting in the mortar lines. I don’t cover the whole wall, just patches.
I next repeat step (3) with a slightly darker color, usually a rust or burnt orange, making more patches, and giving a “quilt” look to the wall.
Next use your choice of “brick” red, and repeat the (3), this time covering the entire wall. Keep the pressure lighter, as you don’t want to completely block out the yellow and orange you’ve already done. Use less red to look more faded. Let dry for a day.
Trim paint all cornices, windows, etc…
Use an india ink or similar black wash, run that down the walls, until satisfactory.
You can do steps 3-5 right after each other or let them dry for a day before proceeding. If you do them one after another, the paint will mix, giving you a unique brick color in some areas where paint is still wet.
EDIT: Here’s one I did recently. I liked the way the bricks came out, so I actually left off the wash.
Brick, especially on older structures, was often very specific to the locale and the type and colour of clay available. The front of important buildings might use brick brought in from elsewhere, and many structures also used non-local brick for architectural highlights. Also, mortar comes in many colours, from the stark white of early high-lime content mortar to various greys, browns, and black. Local conditions might contribute to the colour of all but recently-built structures, too. For instance, my hometown used a lot of orange brick, but unless it was new or recently cleaned, it appeared as a very dark boxcar red, and in some cases, almost black - this was due to a high concentration of heavy industry in the area.
This kitbash of Walthers George Roberts Printing was airbrushed with a light grey (may have been Floquil’s Grey Primer, then the brick areas dry-brush painted using a boxcar reddish colour which I had on hand. I wasn’t too fond of the look (the grey didn’t really look like concrete, although it was very close to the concrete portions of a large curtain-wall structure in town which had been painted). The mortar effect was so-so.
I decided to try pre-mixed drywall compound as mortar, and used a rag over my fingertip to apply it liberally to all of the brick areas. It dried quickly, and I then used a clean, dry rag to wipe away all of the excess, leaving only that which remained in the mortar lines:
This structure (leftovers from two Walthers’ Water
