Coloring Brick

[rosyfft]

I am a huge fan of distressed brick buildings. Can you guys share your methods for coloring brick, both for plastic and hydrocal. Would love to pick up some ideas.

[bparrish]

Yep........... Sure can..............

All of this depends on what you want things to look like.  Brick tends to look a lot like the clay that is available in the area you are modeling.  Further, other than length of firing time for the brick which alters the color a bit, there are only so many colors.

My favorite method is to blast the entire structure, brick only, no doors or windows yet, with a CHEAP gray primer from where ever you can find it.  Rattle cans are my favorite.  Let it thoroughly dry.

Then dry brush on a tuscan or similar dark brown - red color using an acrylic paint.  This is a technique that you will get on to in time.  Use half inch wide flat brush and keep things dry.  You don't want to flood the mortar lines with red.

Allow to dry and choose a second brown color like rail brown and use a solvent base paint for this layer.  The changing back and forth from acrylic to solvent prevents the paint from pulling up the previous layer.  After this layer seal things with a flat lacquer or dull cote if you can still find it.  Allow to dry.

Then choose the final color that you really want your brick to look like.  I like dark almost burgundy red for this layer as it will be well seen and I just like the dark red fired look of it.  Use and acrylic for this layer.

If things go a little blotchy it is OK as the calcium leaching from the brick and mortar are never an even thing across a wall.

There you have my method. Sounds complicated but it really goes fast.

see ya
Bob

[tom.boyd.125]

Bob,
Nice job on the Ed Fulasz kit # 15 , " The Drug Store " , now owned by Jimmy 's D. @ Railroad Kits.com.
Ed's line of Hydrocal kits are available for sale there. Another place to find Hydrocal brick structures to color along with those from Downtown Deco.
Both make an excellent line of structures. Both websites have photos for reference on finished builds of their kits. Also the instructions found in kits by Southriver Modelworks give detailed step by step instructions on coloring hydrocal and urethane brick & stone wall castings . Great photos and info is also found at the Stoney Creek Designs website. You may also want to check this topic by downtowndeco, which is very recent, Randy describes building his kits and discusses coloring them too.
http://modelersforum.com/index.php?topic=1262.msg28322#msg28322
Hope this helps.
Tom

[deemery]

If the mortar lines are deep enough, my preferred method is to spray prime the structure with the mortar color, white or light grey.  Then I use makeup sponges to gently apply the brick color to the face of the bricks using a drybrushing approach (remove most of the paint from the sponge), wiping along the diagonal.  I use little pieces of sponge to get into corners.


If the mortar lines are not sharp enough for the sponge technique, I'll spraypaint the brick color, then do a mortar wash, usually with gouache (artist opaque watercolor paint - look for a cheap student's set at a craft store with a 40% off coupon.)  Then I'll spotpaint/weather the brick.  You might want to seal the gouache (e.g. with Dullcote or some other matte finish) before you start spot-painting the bricks.  Gouache will come off with any moisture (which you can use to "erase" the mortar lines if you don't like the color).


Finally, I'll use weathering pigments/powders/chalks to add more weathering.


dave

[oldbloodhound]

I either brush or spray with a gray primer and then follow with the brick color.  My choice of brick color is "Georgia Clay".  Kind of that orangy red shade.   If you use a darker primer/undercoat or even black, it changes the finish color of the topcoat.
After dry I use cornstarch to fill in the mortar lines.   I wipe it on with my fingers and then lightly dust off the excess.  Any trace amount left on the surface will give the bricks some age.  Then a coat of dullcoat to finish it off.

[EricQuebec]

Hi,
The technic I use for brick color is exposed here :
http://modelersforum.com/index.php?topic=552.15



Eric Québec city

[GPdemayo]

Love the brick colors Eric. 

[GPdemayo]

Great work Dave.....love the scene and structures. 

[tom.boyd.125]

Dave & Eric,
Really nice brick coloring builds to show in this thread. Dave, you used my favorite craft paint brick color.
Eric, the brick coloring done on the Wrisley Papers brick addition is excellent ! Great build thread too.
Another thing to mention if you look at Eric's photo is to paint individual bricks different colors like black, earth, or another shade of red.
Tom