For Thomas and Sons I’ve brought buildings made from laser cut fibreboard from LCUT.co.uk. I wasn’t sure how to paint them so I decided to do some experimentation. Luckily when I placed my order with LCUT I accidentally ordered an additional building. I decided to use this for the experiment.

Firstly, acrylic paints. I painted one wall of the spare building with two different mortar colours, a lighter one on the left and a darker one on the right. Then I dry brushed different reds and red-browns over the surface to see if they would create a realistic brick effect. Normally, I’m quite successful at dry brushing acrylics but this time I must admit I was disappointed with the results.

Turning to enamels, I painted another wall of the building with Humbrol 121 to give a mortar coloured undercoat. Then I dry brushed different enamel paints over the surface.  This was much more successful.

There are two variants that I particularly liked. For the top right hand section I mixed Humbrol 62 and 73 in a 1 to 1 ratio and dry brushed this over the surface. This created a nice red brick effect that would look good on houses. For the bottom right section I dry brushed the surface with Humbrol 70. This has created a weathered brick effect more suited to industrial buildings. With some detailing and other colours I think Humbrol 70 could create walls resembling this old industrial building.

To complete the experiment I tested this approach on a whole wall.

It was painted with a coat of Humbrol 121 to give the mortar colour, then dry brushed with Humbrol 70.

This is definitely a step in the right direction and provides a good foundation for further detailing.

Perhaps, I shouldn’t be surprised that Humbrol 70 worked best, after all it’s called ‘Brick Red’…