Brick and Mortar

Red brick buildings can come in many shades. Here is a basic guide on how to paint a red brick building.
  • Use whatever kind of paint you wish. Pick a nice flat (matte) dark reddish brown color as a base coat. Paint the entire area of brick with the base color and allow it to dry.
  • Apply a mortar wash to the entire area of brick. Use a wide flat brush. The one I use is called a “Shader.” Use a grayish white color for the mortar wash. Thin the gray paint down by adding water until you get a nice thin wash. Using the flat brush, apply the wash to the entire building. This will allow the lighter color to sink into the recesses of the brick. Allow this to dry.
  • If you believe that you didn’t water the wash down enough and you got too much gray on the red brick, use a pencil eraser to carfully remove some of the excess mortar wash.
  • Using a different brush, drybrush lightly over the entire surface with the original dark base color. Feel free to allow some areas to remain lighter in order to show weathering.

A second way to do this may be simpler for some hobbyists. It works because on textured card or styrene.

  • Paint the entire brick area of the building white. This serves as a basecoat and sets the underlying mortar color for the bricks. Allow this to dry.
  • Wash the entire building with a mortar wash of a light gray. Most mortar is not white, and it will add some variance to the base color. Allow this to dry.
  • Using a dark reddish brown color, drybrush the entire brick area. The drybrushing will color the brick on the raised surfaces, and allow the lighter color to remain visibile in the crevices between the bricks.



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