colour scheme for buildings

[sniperbait]

So, I've been painting figures for years now but never did much scenery. Till Frostgrave that is.

In the past I've tackled buildings by painting them black or dark grey then drybrushing them with a few shades of grey adding brown and Moss green for well, moss.

I've never been particularly happy with the results and I wondered if anyone had any tips on which colours/techniques to use or could point me to any blogs which cover this?

Ta.

[pacarat]

hmmm, my .02 Lupins:

Look around you (or on the 'net) at any built up area - especially pre-21C, for brick and stone buildings. There is a huge variety in color out there - shades of brown, tans, reds, white - some mixed, some not.

The old standby of dark grey with lighter drybrush is (IMO) an artifact of old White Dwarf game pics. I will be the first to admit I was influenced by that - back in the pre-internet days, there wasnt much else to us as refs besides gaming mags.

add in age, weathering, decay, etc, and your color variety could be all over the place. I'd google for imags of buildings 200+ years old to see.

here in Colorado I'm very limited in seeing the real (old) thing, but in my travels in Europe I have seen boocoo examples of weathered stone, brick, etc.

be sure to post some pics as you get your terrain going. :-)

[Glitzer]

I don't remember the blog I found it on, but I have switched to a very counter-intuitive way of painting buildings and it works out fine.

Begin by spraying black, then blockpaint the rendering terracotta or another bright colour.

After this: Wash everything dark brown (I keep the current face flat which makes me repeat this step 5 timesbecouse of once for every side and once for ceiling)

finals Step drybrush with light grey/nearly white

Examples:
Example 1
Example 2
Example 3
Example 4

EDIT: My way of painting brickwork: Paint everything black and drybrush ochre or crimson. Add addtional coloured bricks by randomly painting some in shades of yellow, brown and red. Wash everything with thinned black ink and then add a slight drybrushing of light gray. I leave some stone features black and just drybrush them light gray for a different look on stones (like the ones on the corners of my mordheim buildings)

[pacarat]

Wow... that's some really nice work there.

[Digitarii]

 

Really excellent work, Glitzer! I have a bunch of stuff I need to get painted, and I really didn't want to go with the whole dark grey standard, especially for my Wizard's Tower. Thanks for the examples!

[robh]

Glitzer, did you replace the card on the Mordheim houses or just render over the original?

[Buff Orpington]

I remember Mal Wright having a rant about grey rocks years ago as round his way they weren't grey. He was in Australia. As mentioned above, it's the GW effect and the plain truth is that around Nottingham & Derbyshire a lot of the rocks (and buildings) are grey. While it is a cliché I feel that grey stone buildings work pretty well for Frostgrave. I've picked up a set of tester pots from Wilkinson's running from Barely Black to Pearl Grey as increasingly light drybrushes. I'm satisfied so far.

[horridperson]

Thanks for those examples Glitzer.  Those are some sweet buildings with wonderful stonework and loads of character. 

[Epix]

I have not painted my buildings yet but I want to use this tutorial:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBjXXfXlF9I

It is in Spanish but still it is easy to understand just by watching the video.

[sniperbait]

Cheers chaps, I'll get some pics posted when I make some progress.

[Glitzer]

Glitzer, did you replace the card on the Mordheim houses or just render over the original?

I just added 6mm polystyrene foam. I kept the original card as plaster. For the insides I drew a unregular line where the plaster ends and just carved the stones out of the styrene from there.

The rendering effect is from the second and third step I use very thick colours for the bright second step and apply it quite irregular. After drying I apply the wash with a flat brush by tapping it on. Those two steps seem to create enough structure for the fourth drybrushing step to work.

If your colour for step 2 is not thick enough, switch to artists acrylics. They usually will give your more structure (they also give you about 40 times the amount of paint for only 5 times the price which initially made me switch to them for terrain painting).

[admiraldick]

It's worth having a think about the background of your version of the city. What material is it made from?

And from an artistic point of view: how are you going to add detail without drowning the miniatures placed on it? (Beautiful terrain is great to look at,but no one likes forgetting to use a model just because they can't see them.)

My version of Felsted is very dark (being made from local rock and to allow greater contrast with the snow). I've highlighted it with brown-greys, which are a lot more natural looking than the standard go to, blue-greys. For extra detail, I have inked some stones a dark teal and others purple. This just hints at minerals in  the rock, but adds colour and implies a magical quality to the structures.

[robh]

I just added 6mm polystyrene foam. I kept the original card as plaster. For the insides I drew a unregular line where the plaster ends and just carved the stones out of the styrene from there.

Thanks, it is a great effect. I love the Mordheim buildings artwork but have often thought about how to "thicken" the walls a little. Sticking 2 of each piece together would be the obvious answer......but at the crazy prices Mordheim sets go for these days too costly.

[Epix]

I like mordheim buildings too which is why I bought these:
http://escenorama.com/shopping/product.php?id_product=127
It is a nice product for a reasonable price, I plan to paint them during my next holidays.

[horridperson]

I've been looking at Roman buildings for ideas and wouldn't mind including some with a middle eastern vibe as well.  Both have a stucco treatment so I think an off white or tan might work.  For the sake of presentation in a winterscape I have considered treating them to "cold" paint schemes so they would match the ground work and terrain.  The picture I keep going back to in my head is a blue-grey to white stucco with a band of blue or cyan rather than the earthy band of red umber that accented some Roman structures.