Buildings Part 2 - Painting Brickwork on a Ratio Kit

There are four sections to the buildings section and, for ease of navigation, a link to each of the other three pages is listed below - though you can navigate yourself sequentially through this section using the links at the bottom of each page should you so wish - so that you don't have to navigate your way through all four pages of this section if you don't want to!

This time an ink wash was added to give a more realistic colour to the mortar (click image to load an enlarged image)

Ok, so I've tried painting brickwork and mortar on a Kestrel Kit so how about trying it on a Ratio kit? I had a weighbridge kit and decided to try and paint the brickwork on the office. This time, as I did with the second industrial unit kit I assembled, after some advice from other modellers I decided to paint on an ink wash (Games Workshop Flesh ink wash in this case as it was the lightest of the 2 shades I had to hand) to give a more realistic colour to the mortar and then add another coat of drybrushed Terracotta and see how that came out.

As you can see from the picture to the left, it came out reasonably well - and certainly better than the previous model. I also found a way of making sure the raised detail was picked out without having to worry about any paint going into the gaps between this raised detail. I used an Expo no 4 flat brush and painted the model at an angle of 45 degrees to the model. If you make sure that the brush has been brushed on a piece of tissue until virtually all the paint has been removed from the brush you should be able to pick out all the raised detail.

I certainly had some fun doing the rest of the model. The roof was straight forward enough. I painted the tiles a slate grey and the chimney pot terracotta and black. The fun came with the brass parts. I painted them blue as I felt that the staff at the depot where the hut will be used would more than likely have painted the doors and window frames with any paint to hand as, seeing as the layout is to be set during the blue/grey era, blue would be the most likely colour to be used. I painted all the brass pieces in this colour and then fixed a piece of acetate, cut to size, to the window frame to represent the glass windows.

The finished weighbridge office kit that will be used as the control room for the train washer (click image to load an enlarged image)

When I went to fix the door and window, the superglue I used was a lot stronger and quicker drying than I expected. When I first went to fix the door in place, I tried to slide it into place as I thought it would be possible to do that and then the glue would dry and be fixed fast. What I didn't expect was the door to stick fast the minute it touched the glue! I had to take the door off hurriedly as it would have been very crooked otherwise. The paint had been removed from the door where it had touched the glue as well. So much for that!

I repainted the door and, once it was dry, tried again. This time I made sure that I placed the door exactly in place and it went in exactly as I wanted it. The window went in slightly crooked but not excessively so so I left it in place as it felt it would add a touch of the lived-in look. Looking at the model the roof could have done with being painted in a slightly darker shade of grey but it still looks fairly reasonable to me. I'll certainly use a darker grey the next time I paint a roof as a slate roof though.

So that's another kit finished. What I intend to do with this model is use it as the control room for the train washer that I intend to scratch build for my MPD.

As with most aspects of this project, the buildings has it's own forum devoted to it on the site's forum. A link to the forum has been included below, should you be interested.

:: Next Page - Painting and Assembling Lineside Huts

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