How to Paint TT Combat MDF Buildings

[khartoum2]

Hi

I have just built 4 of the modern TT Combat MDF buildings (fire station, apartment B, the bank and Tavington Place)

Have to say they were pretty much a joy to put together and build- all the pieces come out easy as anything needed little clean up and went together well - In a couple of places (in particular with the fire station the instructions could be better)

Now I have the buildings which I really like as they are even if its not realistic I am looking at how should I paint them

If anybody could give me some ideas about approach and colours to use would be much appreciated

Thanks

G

[comet5]

The first thing I do is undercoat my MDF buildings.  I use a grey car primer spray paint.  I find the MDF soaks up the paint too much if I skip this step.  Ithen paint them with cheap acrylic paint from the craft shop.

As to which colours to paint your buildings.  Look around your town for ideas.  I've used deep red, light and dark grey and white.  My next builiding will be a light beige colour.

[khartoum2]

Thanks for the help Comet

[CarlLeyland]

I use tester pots from DIY stores and a small house brush. This method is great for render and takes our normal paint over the top of it no problem

[Coronasan]

Any problems with mdf warping?

I have just built the TT Combat warehouse and want to paint that, inside and out.

[comet5]

I painted the warehouse last month.  No warping problems at all.

[psyberwyche]

I've just started my first MDF buildings, and I'm very happy with the progress so far. No warping after spraying.

I started with grey primer too. Shaded all the recesses with brown/black wash, and drybrushed up all the areas I planned to leave grey with various colours for weathering. Then I gave all the brickwork a generous drybrush of Terracotta acrylic, followed by very light drybrushes in patches of black, tan, and blue/grey. finally, use glaze medium and a mix of pale grey/bone to wash between the bricks - you should have some primer showing through, so this just resets the mortar colour. I'm almost done with my first one, so I'll try to get some pictures up when they're finished.

[AndrewBeasley]

A few options for undercoat I have used:

1) Car primer (Halfords grey to be specific)
2) Watered down acrylic - household paint thinned to 'whitewash' style.  Concerned over warping (though it never happened) so I stopped this.
3) Watered down PVA glue

On the dark age buildings I did, I found that I needed nothing as the majority of the walls was covered in filler and two coats of hobby acrylic worked fine.

If I was forced to go with anything then I would go for the car primer applied very very lightly as not to fill in some of the light detailing 'burns'.

[Gary Peach]

Couple of PDF how to here http://marchattack.co.uk/sarissa.htm

[Infovore]

When I built my Sarissa industrial building I also primed with grey car primer. Then painted over that with craft acrylics - mostly various mixes of grey with some brown to try and get a concrete colour.
Didn't see any warping or other issues with this.
Hopefully, there's an image here -

Not a great picture or great painting I'm afraid!

[SiamTiger]

Priming is very important. After that you are free to go, as long as you don't drown the mdf kit in liquid / water. Airbrush or spray can is usually a better choice than a regular brush.

[khartoum2]

Thanks for all the advice

Have to pick one of the buildings to test on