Need Advice - How to paint Middle Eastern?Spanish Buildings

[Helen]

Hi Guys,

I've some Middle Eastern/Spanish buildings that I'd like to paint up for my Palestine/Peninsular games. Question is: How do I paint these buildings?

I've already undercoated a small number of the buildings in a grey primer to start with.

I bought a number of the 75 ml "Reeves" fine quality Acrylic paints in tubes. Colours I bought were:
Sand, Naples Yellow, Terracotta, Raw Umber, Burnt Sienna, Red Ochre, Burnt Umber and White. If I needed to buy anymore colours please let me know which if you could. I choose the colours as best representing all materials in the building and fixtures. I didn't get black at the time, but I do have my vellejo.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Helen

[Lowtardog]

Are the adobe Helen?

[sukhe_bator]

White with terracotta tiling would be the obvious. Seems boring but in both cases the white reflects the heat and whitewash is cheap therefore most appropriate for peasant/ordinary housing. Not for nothing is S Spain known as the region of the white towns. Go to town on the texture, show it flaking off, broken and tiling - different shades from pale brick to dark terracotta all can really add character

[Plynkes]

There's the thing. White is good for Spain, a more sandstone sort of colour might be better for Palestine (never been there, but my memories of Egypt tell me that as far as the traditional dwellings go, sand-coloured buildings were much more common than white ones where I was, though sometimes it was a very, very pale sand colour).

If you're going to use them for both, you need to make the choice and live with it. Otherwise you have to buy more buildings!

[Lowtardog]

As poly says the Middle eastern buildings were not white washed like those in the med. For mine in Afghanistan I used a dark earth/beasial brown base coat and then worked up with wet an dry brushing with ochres and cream/off white colours.

Any bricks shown you would need to have a look around for the area you want to use them for, some are red whilst others are a more earthy colour

[Helen]

Thanks Guys,

I've a few buildings to paint so I'll go with white for Spain an a sand colour for the Middle East.

All comments really appreciated. Now to put brush with paint to building!

Helen

[meninobesta]

older Peninsular country houses and buildings are typically painted in white wash!
If they are not painted regularly (once every spring) the white wash tends to get big mould stains!

In Morocco and in Tunisia as you get closer to the desert the main colour you'll see in houses is the sand tone, you'll also find some houses painted in whitewash, specially if they are closer to the Mediterranean, although for older common northern African houses I would bet on sand tones

[sukhe_bator]

In Saudi Arabia, the Yemen etc and parts of Morocco the sandy coloured plaster walls are white washed around doors and windows creating a quite pleasing effect. This mosque I made is a generic type based on several examples in Central Arabia

[Hitman]

Helen;
I primed my buildings black (cheap WalMart arcyllic primer), then I spray painted them a Burnt Umber. If the buildings are made of foam core you might be better off to pay a bit extra for the Michael's brand spray paints which can be used on styrofoam....they work great. After the burnt umber, I painted my buildings using the dry brush technique using Americana arcylics (236 mL size) Antique Gold, and then dry brushed Sand. They look greta for Middle Eastern or even Mos Eisley (for Sci Fi). If you want them a tad lighter, an antique white or even a very soft eggshell will work. If you watch Bernhard Cornwell's Richard Sharpe series, the Spanish and Portuguese buildings can be effectively coloured up to the Sand colour with no problems. I have a good friend from Portugal and the buildings in his village are very similar to this colour.
Regards,
Hitman

[Helen]

Thanks guys with your photos and lovely thoughts on painting buildings.

I'll see how I go!

Helen

[Helen]

Hi Guys, well here are some shots of work in progress on the buildings that I chose sofar.

Please comment on where you think I need to go from here. I've only placed on a coat for the main building an a few different colours for the windmill.





Ta muchly,

Helen

[Lowtardog]

Loooking good Helen, a bit of dry brushing and you have them down great

[Helen]

Loooking good Helen, a bit of dry brushing and you have them down great

Thanks Carl,

Helen

[carlos marighela]

Nice work Helen, just one small tip. Terracotta pantiles of the type found in the med and in Latin America are rarely of a uniform colour unless they are brand new and even then the colour is often not the popular reddish brown but  salmon, cream , buff etc. Roofs of any age usually  present a much more variegated appearance. I paint mine a base colour and then individually pick out tiles in a combination of flesh pink, buff, brown etc  then give it all a wash of brown into the valleys. You can also add some highlights. Mould is also a feature on older roofs in tropical climes so dirtying up sections with a scudgy black wash will add authenticity.

As someone else stated whitewash is cheap and often it's quite diluted. I watched a guy 'paint' the walls of a garage beneath our partment in Salvador a couple of months back. Sadly for him it rained about 2 hours later and the already thin whitewash ran creating a streaky effect. Again mildew causes dark patches to appear on white walls, rarely are they a uniform white.

If you get bored with white and sand then there are other options. In Italy it used to be a common practice to mix bulls blood with whitewash which creates a sort of pinkish tone. In Portugal in urban areas soft pastels: pinks, blues and yellows were quite common.

[Helen]

Nice work Helen, just one small tip. Terracotta pantiles of the type found in the med and in Latin America are rarely of a uniform colour unless they are brand new and even then the colour is often not the popular reddish brown but  salmon, cream , buff etc. Roofs of any age usually  present a much more variegated appearance. I paint mine a base colour and then individually pick out tiles in a combination of flesh pink, buff, brown etc  then give it all a wash of brown into the valleys. You can also add some highlights. Mould is also a feature on older roofs in tropical climes so dirtying up sections with a scudgy black wash will add authenticity.

As someone else stated whitewash is cheap and often it's quite diluted. I watched a guy 'paint' the walls of a garage beneath our partment in Salvador a couple of months back. Sadly for him it rained about 2 hours later and the already thin whitewash ran creating a streaky effect. Again mildew causes dark patches to appear on white walls, rarely are they a uniform white.

If you get bored with white and sand then there are other options. In Italy it used to be a common practice to mix bulls blood with whitewash which creates a sort of pinkish tone. In Portugal in urban areas soft pastels: pinks, blues and yellows were quite common.

Thanks Carlos for your thoughts.

The main building will be heavily drybrushed with a sand colour before another of white. The roof as suggested I'll apply a light sand colour over the tiles to accentuate the individual tiles.

Helen