What colour for bricks.

Joined
Sep 3, 2020
Messages
125
Points
43
First Name
Kevin
Hi can anyone point me in the right direction of a base colour I should use on my brick low relief workshop building.
I only use acrylic paints to paint with, any advice will be appreciated.:thumb2:
 

Tim Marlow

Little blokes aficionado
SMF Supporter
Joined
Apr 27, 2018
Messages
16,551
Points
113
Location
Somerset
First Name
Tim
Brick colours are many and varied I’m afraid, depending upon the area and the period of manufacture. Victorian London, for example, tendEd to be yellow, Manchester are darker red. My old home town, Salisbury, had and orangey red brick. There are also engineering blue where weight bearing is required. When you pick a colour, paint the mortar first, then dry brush diagonally with required colour. Painting individual bricks is a recipe for the nut house.....
 
Joined
Sep 3, 2020
Messages
125
Points
43
First Name
Kevin
Thanks guys for the information, most useful. :thumb2:
 
Joined
Sep 3, 2020
Messages
125
Points
43
First Name
Kevin
I seem to favour Vallejo acrylic paints so I think I will go with their brick red and weather it to get the desired colour on the building.
 

Jakko

Way past the mad part
SMF Supporter
Joined
Apr 28, 2018
Messages
10,592
Points
113
First Name
Jakko
Pick a colour you think is right — as said, it varies widely with era, area and more. Paint the whole wall in that colour and then mix up variations on it: just put a bit of the paint on a palette and add in the odd drop of some other colour to make it darker, lighter and/or a different shade, then paint random (groups of) bricks with it. A little goes a long way, though: what you want to achieve is to break up the monotony, not make bricks stand out by being clearly different colours. If you do the latter, you soon get the appearance of a new-built house intended to look old by using a few different colours of brick.

After that, drybrushing and wiping dark paint vertically up and down over the wall with your finger helps a lot in making the wall appear more realistic.
 
Joined
Sep 3, 2020
Messages
125
Points
43
First Name
Kevin
Thanks Jakko for the information and explaining this to me.
 

Jakko

Way past the mad part
SMF Supporter
Joined
Apr 28, 2018
Messages
10,592
Points
113
First Name
Jakko
Let me share this as an example of what I mean:

fullsizeoutput_4c8.jpeg

This is one of the Airfix 1:76 scale resin buildings that I painted some years ago as a piece of wargames terrain (hence the plastic card floor I put in). The walls are mainly a generic brick red, I think from Revell. I then painted areas of bricks with two or three different shades of red that came close to the base colour but weren’t quite the same, and then drybrushed bits with a few other shades as well. The mortar is simply a wash of grey paint over all of that. The staining near the door and window is black paint that I smeared downward with my finger while it was still wet (in retrospect, I should also have done that underneath the roof supports).
 
Joined
Sep 3, 2020
Messages
125
Points
43
First Name
Kevin
Looks really good Jakko, thanks for sharing this with me.:thumb2:
 

Jakko

Way past the mad part
SMF Supporter
Joined
Apr 28, 2018
Messages
10,592
Points
113
First Name
Jakko
I hope it’ll prove useful to you :smiling3: It doesn’t need to be complicated or a lot of work to look good, is what I guess I’m trying to say :smiling3: Just a few colours and some simple techniques, and your wall will look a lot more interesting.
 

JR

Member of the Rabble and Pyromania Consultant
SMF Supporter
Joined
May 26, 2015
Messages
17,217
Points
113
Location
lincs
First Name
John
Kevin, have a look at Google Photos for brick. Jakko is right in his posting .
I've included a photo I took a few years ago of some Victorian brick

2005 0079.JPG

You can see the odd blue bricks that were laid.

I've photoed theses for you from the Master of Dios. Emmanuel Nouaillier.

2020_11a.jpg2020_12.jpg2020_13.jpg2020_15.jpg

I refer to this all the time. HTHS

John.
 

Attachments

  • 2020_12.jpg
    2020_12.jpg
    162.5 KB · Views: 0
  • 2020_13.jpg
    2020_13.jpg
    174.3 KB · Views: 0
  • 2020_14.jpg
    2020_14.jpg
    148.9 KB · Views: 0
  • 2020_15.jpg
    2020_15.jpg
    185.1 KB · Views: 0
  • 2020_14.jpg
    2020_14.jpg
    148.9 KB · Views: 2
Joined
Sep 3, 2020
Messages
125
Points
43
First Name
Kevin
Thanks John for the reference pictures.
 
  • Like
Reactions: JR

Jakko

Way past the mad part
SMF Supporter
Joined
Apr 28, 2018
Messages
10,592
Points
113
First Name
Jakko
That series in MilMod that John posted an installment of there, is a very good read if you want realistic-looking buildings, roads, street furniture and similar.
 

David Lovell

SMF Supporter
Joined
Apr 27, 2018
Messages
1,456
Points
113
Location
Poole Dorset
First Name
David
Just bought it Karl, a few good tips, mainly on what to use from the range of paints .
Probably not the place but couldn't agree more with John, was asked what I wanted for a pressie so asked for the ammo book painting and weathering modern Russian armour, basically a catalogue for their products ,the same model was used all the way through ,I'd have learnt the same picking a modeling magazine off of the shelf in say smiths reading it putting it back and keeping the cash in my pocket ,the only few bits I gleaned from it was their take on how they use their products. Dave
 
  • Love
Reactions: JR

Isitme

SMF Supporter
Joined
Nov 2, 2020
Messages
707
Points
93
First Name
Mike
Hi can anyone point me in the right direction of a base colour I should use on my brick low relief workshop building.
I only use acrylic paints to paint with, any advice will be appreciated.:thumb2:
Hello Kevin,
Try mixing some of the rust colours with shades of browns. Check out you tube where you can find some good tutorials.
Cheers, Mike.
 
Top