I’ve been asked a few times recently how I do the brickwork for my Victorian London builds so thought I’d start a separate thread. Most of the methods I use I picked up from this forum. This tutorial is for London Stock Brick which was a popular building material in Victorian London and achieved its distinctive colour from the London clay used in the production of the bricks.
Anyway, enough of the history lesson. I don’t intend to teach people to suck eggs but thought I’d be as thorough as possible with the tutorial to demonstrate the method that works for me and why.
For my brickwork I use South Eastern Finecast embossed plastic sheets (in this case 7mm Flemish Bond). There are other manufacturers available such as Slaters Plastikard but I find the detail on the Finecast sheets better defined and therefore easier to work with. Some people emboss their own brickwork onto blue foam, if only I had the time and patience! I use two fairly cheap sable brushes, size 2 and 4. The size 4 does most of the work for me but after the abuse meted out to it during each build it is retired to the bin. I sometimes use flat brushes for dry-brushing but not for brickwork as I find they can be inconsistent with the amount of paint they apply over large areas.
Firstly I prime the brickwork I want to paint with Army Painters Skeleton Bone primer. This will form the colour of the mortar. It’s not cheap stuff but it’s a good colour and a nice fine spray that doesn’t obliterate the detail. I usually hold it about 12 inches from the brickwork when priming, any closer and it tends to ‘clot’.
For the brickwork I use actual masonry paint (a good tip from Overlord). I use Homebase’s Smooth Weathercoat (Bitter chocolate). It has a great rich texture and is easy to dry-brush with. Horrible smell until it dries and usually invites derisive comments from the other half.
Brickwork primed and dried to a nice matt finish.
Using the No.4 brush the first application of paint is only light and done at a 45 degree angle to the brickwork. If you use the masonry paint you’ll find there isn’t much excess moisture to be absorbed before brushing.
Once dry I then apply the second coat at the opposite angle. To get the weathered effect, every now and again I slightly increase the pressure on the brush (most noticeable on the larger section at the bottom of the picture). There are loads of other methods for weathering brickwork, especially for red brick so perhaps someone can chip in with some other ideas.
Finally, the boring bit. Using the No. 2 brush paint random individual bricks with a third coat. It’s worth it as it gives the brickwork a more realistic appearance.
That’s it. Tadaaa! Not too bad eh? I hope it helps and if I can do it you definitely can do it!
Any questions I’m happy to help.
11 December 2008, 01:17:48 PM