Three techniques for painting brick walls with mortar

Modeling Subjects Dioramas
1

Hi everyone.

With some spare parts, I decided to try some painting techniques. I have marked each of the three techniques I have tried with a number.

  1. MORTAR COLOR FIRST: The first thing I did with this technique is to paint the wall with the mortar color first. To create mortar color, I have mixed white with a little bit of dark grey. Then, once the mortar color was dry, I used a flat brush to dab the brick-colored paint on the wall.

The important word here is to dab your brush gently with just a little bit of paint. If you use too much paint or if you brush the bricks, the paint is going to fill the mortar color.

  1. MORTAR PAINT-AND-WIPE: In this test, I started by painting the wall with the brick color you want. Then, when all the paint is dry, you choose a mortar collar and paint all the wall. Be sure to let the mortar color to fill the spaces between the bricks. Right after you have painted your wall with the mortar color, just wipe the paint from the surface of the bricks by using a cloth.

  2. BRICK WITH MORTAR WASH: In this technique, you begin by painting your wall with the brick color you want. When the paint is dry, choose a mortar color and a thinner. In my case, I was using Vallejo acrylic paint and my thinner was water. Just be sure to use more water than the mortar paint. When your wall is covered with the mortar color wash, just let it dry.

Mortar

So, have you tried those techniques before? Which one do you prefer and why? Which of my three wall portions do you think looks better? Which of my walls looks like it belongs to an old building?

2

Depends on what’s being modeled, at least for me.

If the subject uses a white mortar and very uniform bricks–that’s best with Method #1. This will best represent public buildings like schools, libraries, City Halls, etc.

If the subject is in dark mortar (or aged/sooty/polluted mortar) either 2 or 3 are going to be better, with #3 best for recycled (known as “used brick” or “chicago style” in the trade) brick walls with a number of brick colors represented.

I’m on the fence over which way I’d do what are known as “yellow” brick (all of the sand/tan color) brick, and those virtually all use a natural grey mortar, and sledom show much’effluorescence" in real life

For white brick, those are usually laid with white or pale gray mortar, but the mortar lines always seem to be dark–which suggests technique #3.

3

I have done 3 in the past + a drybrush lighter color like I did on this damaged wall