Question on painting Sarissa City Block buildings

[AzSteven]

Hey all - I am thinking of buying some of those buildings for some Chicago gangland terrain, but the natural wood coloring is not what I want.

Has anyone had experience in painting these?  Does painting eliminate the brick/mortar lines?  Are there any pitfalls to be aware of?

Thanks in advance

[Daeothar]

I saw some painted ones at Crisis, and they looked much better than the bare ones. The laser cuts are deep enough to take paint, washes or show up under dry brushing.

Those buildings did have some embellishments on them, like sanding paper for the roof surfaces, billboards to the sides, sidewalks etc, etc. All in all those comvinced me to buy some in the near future...

[Bloodsbane]

You can easily do thin washes on top of the natural wood surface and preserve the burnt-in shading.

[Cypher226]

I'm in the process of painting one up at the moment; I've textured it with a light coat of textured spraypaint (not roughcoat) and am halfway through doing the exterior white. Pretty pleased so far - will finish the white tomorrow and get pics up, weather permitting.
I'm doing mine up to be a PanOceanian city building for Infinity (and if I'm happy with the result it will be joined by some friends pretty soon....)

[joroas]

I bottled it and left them the original colour, I only painted doors, windows and roof.

[Cypher226]

Haven't been able to get the building finished today - terrible spraying weather in North West England today!

Going to try again tomorrow.

[AzSteven]

Well, I have ordered the big City Block deal, which apparently is already on its way from the UK.  Doing some in-depth google pics research now on potential color schemes.  Should be fun!

[Cypher226]

just finished the second coat of white spray - will take a couple of pics in daylight tomorrow, but I must say I'm really satisfied with it!

[Cypher226]

Finally some pics!







I've got a few detail bits to add (antenociti air con unit on the roof and a screen on one of the inside short walls upstairs), but other than a light wash on the pavement, I'm going to call it done.

Lessons learned - fill the gaps with epoxy before painting, and brush on an undercoat on the burnt laser cut areas before painting if you're going for a light finish!

[DrVesuvius]

That looks really good, Cypher, thanks for posting.  Can you tell me what textured paint you used?

And did you do anything to pick out the patterning on the etched stonework?

I'm looking at these for the better class end of a Victorian city terrain.  Has anyone tried using Sarissa Precision buildings alongside the Warbases VBCW buildings?

[Cypher226]

That looks really good, Cypher, thanks for posting.  Can you tell me what textured paint you used?

And did you do anything to pick out the patterning on the etched stonework?

Plastikote Manhattan Mist (#9444)
Clicky-click

I didn't give it a solid coat, just enough to add some texture. The base wood colour was still clearly visible until I put the top coat on.
If you're going to use this stuff, do it well away from anything you don't want textured (garden furniture, pets, fences etc) - the extra weight in the spray means it carries a lot further than normal primer.

I'd also recommend having a go on something scrap first just to work out how to get the coverage you want, and definately mask off any part of the model you don't want covered. - I cut masks out of card the same dimensions as the window inserts and masking taped them into place after spraying the interior.

[AzSteven]

Now that is amazing - my Sarissa order (well part of it anyway) arrived today 11/17 after I ordered it on the evening of 11/9 (which was probably 11/10 in the UK by that time).  So UK to Tucson Arizona in the western US in a week!  I had ordered the Big Block special with 5 buildings, and 3 of them showed up today.  I suspect the other two are in another box, as this one was close to full up.

Very nice looking stuff - I now understand the comments about leaving them out to air for a day or two, as my workroom smells like burnt wood now!

[Bloodsbane]

Nonsense, AzSteven! Your workroom smells of lasers, and thus of awesomeness. It's one of the best features of MDF houses

[Sangennaru]

Lol, toxic awesomeness! 

[DrVesuvius]

I've just sprayed my Sarissa building with the same textured paint that Cypher used.  I'll second his comments about how very powerful the spray is and how you only need a very light touch.

I also sprayed the window and door inserts with a light coating of Army Painter white primer, and was pleased to find that the blackening of the inscribed detail showed right through the paint.  I think if you didn't want to use the textured paint, grey primer and a little drybrushing would give you a good stone block wall effect.