Some help with my first structure

FrankG

Member
I'm very new to model railroading -- N scale. Not sure this is the right forum for this question, but this one seemed most appropriate.

I'm in the middle of building my very first structure. An old brick factory.

I have the walls painted Boxcar Red and they've been fully weathered. The windows and doors have been painted a prototypical green color and installed. Basically, what I have is the building fully assembled without roofs or misc small details in place.

The problem is that the colors are not what I thought they would be. From a distance, the brick and windows/doors don't really have any contrast, and the entire building has a brownish look to it after weathering (I weathered the brick...not the window frames).

What I'd like to do is leave the window/door color as it is but lighten the brick without having to repaint the whole thing and re-weather.

I don't currently have mortar lines because I found that I wasn't very good (in N scale) at doing a mortar wash. Maybe that's one route I should try again.

But is there an easy way to lighten the brick color across the entire building without effecting the windows? Is there a product I can maybe just brush on that will lighten the overall color?
 

Tyson Rayles

Active Member
You didn't say what you used to color the walls so I'm guessing it was paint and can't be removed. What I would try is brushing on pastel chalks, if it doesn't come out the way you like you can wash it off and try again.
 

shaygetz

Active Member
Welcome to The Gauge. There are as many ways out of this fix as there are people in this forum :thumb:. Tyson's is a good one especially easy to clean off if you're not happy with the effect. Another one is drybrushing. Take and dip your brush in your desired color, wipe it almost clean on a rag then quickly brush it with downward strokes 'til your desired effect is attained.
 

jkristia

Member
you could also try some drybrushing of the walls. Dry brushing is used for highlighting details, you dip your brush in some lightgray or other light colr, then remove all of the paint again brushing on a piece of paper towel, then when you think you have removed all the paint, try and carefully and gentle brush the bricks, and you will see there is still some paint left which will lighten up the bricks a little bit. You have to be carefull, and it takes a little practice (sometimes I still have too much paint on the bruch even if I think it's dry). Try and search fro dry brushing, maybe that will help you with your dark walls

Jesper
 

FrankG

Member
Which do you think is the best option?

Thanks for the responses. I've put some thought into this. Let me try to narrow my choices this way:

Which of these options do you think would give the most satisfactory results for lightening the overall appearace of the brick walls as a whole?

1.) A thin mortar-colored wash. Basically on the idea that light mortar = lighter precieved wall color.
2.) Light drybrushing (I was concerned with the dry brushing because I didn't want to lighten the bricks and be left with dark mortar lines...which I thought might look unrealistic)
3.) Mask off the windows and doors and do a very light airbrush coat of a lighter color
4.) Pastel chalks
 

spitfire

Active Member
Frank, let me suggest a 5th option - spackle. Just spread it all over the brickwork and then scrape off immediately with a spare piece of styrene. The spackle will remain in the mortar lines, solving that problem, and it will leave a slightly lighter look to the brick itself, solving your other problem.

I haven't had good results with the mortar wash technique - I find this is much easier to do and produces more consistent results.

Here is a building I did with this technique.

Val
 

FrankG

Member
What I wound up doing....

is a combo of several of the suggestions. A little chalk, a little drybrushing and a little spackle went a long way. I'm a lot happier with how this is turning out. Thanks!
 
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