I recently built and weathered a DPM building that I’m pretty happy with. Since this is in a yard, it weathered with dirt, grime and rust. The technique of painting the brick first, and then adding concrete (color) paint and wiping, produced good results and left a fair amout of mortar on the bricks.
However, I have a downtown DPM building that will only be weathered lightly, so the technique above may work, but I don’t want to leave any mortar on the bricks; I only want mortar lines. Can I simply cut the concrete paint with water or alcohol and apply after the brick has been painted? I could wipe it off more easily I assume since it won’t dry out as quickly. Or is there another technique?
That techinque will work. You could also try painting the building the mortar color first. Then drybrushing or sponging on the brick color. This may take a couple of passes to get the color right though.
I would agree with this assessment. I would only add that when you dilute the mortor paint, you may need to apply it 2 or 3 times to get the color you want. Then drybru***he brick color. This should leave just enough white/grey on the brick to make soem highlights.
Alchohol will allow it to dry quicker. Too much alchohol will cause some paints (polly-scale ages concrete) to clump up.
Adding water/alchohol makes the paint fall into the lines easier and not sit on the surface of the brick.
However if you are dry brushing, you will not need to dillute the paint. Actually it’s quite the opposite. Dry brushing means to dip your brush/sponge into the paint, and then remove most of the paint by brushing it off a piece of scrap.
Properly done, when you draw your dried brush/sponge against a surface, it takes a little pressure to apply it. It will be uneven and streaky.
I recently read that applying baseball line chalk, or taclum into the cracks with your fingers works well. You then seal this with hairspray. However I find most chalks/talcum way to bright for darker bricks. It stands out like a sore thumb.
A word of caution when using alcohol thinner. Depending on the type of paint used for the base or brick color, alcohol may cause the base paint to “blush” or cause a whitish haze. Especially if you used dull coat on the model before doing the motar lines.
I thinned some spackling with a little water and wiped it over my bricks. Then went back and cleaned the surface of the brick. Which lefted nice looking mortar joints. I am well pleased with the results.