Painting Brick And Mortar Lines 4 Ways (176) 

How many people on here realize that your were a contributer for M.R Magazine for years/decades. I've been following you that long 😜🚂🚂🚂🚂 young man.

I have a roundhouse I've been waiting for a good video to watch to help me paint. This was an excellent video! I think the concrete base with red dry brush technique (1st one) turned out really well. Thanks Larry.

One little more work requiring method is to coat the bricks with gloss varnish, then use some enamel/oil based panel liner or paint and finish it up with a final coat of matte varnish! Enamel and spirit based oil paints have very low surface tension so they tend to naturally flow to every nook and cranny on the brick wall. Gloss varnish is used to help the flow even more and also makes it easier to remove the excess using a piece of damp cloth or something similar.

For baking soda, sealing it with hairspray works really well. It will disappear initially but come back once it dries out.

Thanks, Larry, for a great comparison of different mortar techniques in a controlled test. I love following your weathering videos. If you ever want to try more products for filling mortar lines, may I suggest you look at Distress Crayons. I've been using them for years to fill in mortar lines, especially in laser-cut walls where the mortar lines are often finer and more to scale. But they've been effective in plastic, hydrocal, and resin walls as well. I have a few videos showing how to apply them. Keep up the great work.

Nice work Larry i have found two ways of ading the mortar that works for me. 1 make a wash and apply it over the surface and remove the excess paint of the top of the bricks and secondly use the paint full strengh and work in small sections and wipe the excess of straight away and i have found those two methods have worked the best for me.

Drybrushing on brick surfaces for the effect you're looking for is easier with a foam "brush" or fine foam make-up pad. If you must use a brush, only stroke against the masonry lines, not parallel with them; this keeps the hairs from getting down into the masonry. Also, it's a whole lot easier to do any of the finishing on these structures before they are assembled.

Great to see the different techniques in such detail....Thanks for sharing!!!! I think we all struggle to get the right look on our models!

Great video, keep em' coming.

Thanks for posting. Good stuff! One technique that I have used very successfully on my N scale projects is spackling paste. I buy it in small 8 oz. plastic containers and add a couple teaspoons of water, and mix until it is the consistency of tooth paste. Then I dip in a finger and just rub it onto the surface. After a few minutes of drying I wipe off with a dry finger tip or maybe a soft cloth. It looks awesome. What I really like about it is that you can then go back and stain with watered down paint or ink to prevent the "mortar" from having an overly consistent white look. Not sure the paste would work as well on HO scale. It might. Another time I used Colgate toothpaste (whitening formula). It worked pretty well also, but not as good as the paste.

Joint compound can be used instead of paint or powder. Wipe it on, maybe watered down, and wipe it off.

Thank you so much for this video!! I think i'm gonna try the grey base + dry painting the brick over, looks like a technique i can use pretty well!

Good video. I have tried most of the same techniques as you show with mixed results. I now use Roberts Brick Mortar Formula with good results. I have successfully (although somewhat tedious) used a "wicking" method of applying a wash of gray paint with a few drops of alcohol added as a flow agent. With this method I load up the brush the just touch it to an area and the wash will wick down into the mortar lines without getting on the brick surface.. Also, when brushing or wiping the brick surface, I always try to wipe at a 45 degree angle to the mortar lines to avoid fiber or brush hairs from getting down into the mortar lines as much as possible. I have also found that the best thing to wipe the brick surface is a moist finger as it does not get into the mortar lines at all. Just my tips on how I do it.

Great video and idea, thanks so much.

Larry really good post. I liked the base coat, cement/gray paint wipe off with the India ink wash. It may look good with the mat finish. I'll have to try my test walls. It's up to the individual for the look they are after. You've done a great job on the backdrop walls on your layout. Thanks and take care.

Thanks Larry, Helps me a lot. 🐾🚂 BearCreek RR, KY.

Thank you. I think using different techniques is best, so each structure looks prototypicaly

We, over here in the Old Country, would use a Humbrol Red Oxide enamel paint to undercoat the building, and Humbrol Brick Red as a topcoat.

I've got one more Larry. Though I don't know if you can find it. I use white shoe polish. Then wipe it off . It dries well and takes India ink well.

Thanks Larry!

That model looks like the Airfix Victorian Cottage which would look wonderful in Humbrol Brick Red!!

I use some of the Hubrol Enamel washes, the dust one works well for mortar, and once dry can be worked back with a cotton bud and thinner, which will let the brick coulour come to the fore. Great video Paul

I've had success with artist oil paint washes. I use Unbleached Titanium White by Master's Touch (Hobby Lobby house brand, but any grayish-tan will do, you can mix your own if you need to), VERY thinned down with mineral spirits, and a REALLY cheap nylon-bristled paint brush (like the ones that come with those cheap kid's solid pan water color paint sets, the important thing is that the bristles are not able to actually absorb the wash), and through capillary action the mortar just flows off the brush and into the mortar lines just by touching the brush to the surface, and because you're not smearing anything to the actual surface of the brick, there's nothing to wipe off when you're done! Plus, once dry, the mortar is impervious to any water-based weathering you apply next.

Awesome thank you 🙏 your video was absolutely amazing and so helpful 😀

I have used DAP wall filler with very good results. Just wipe on, let it dry, then lightly buff off any excess. If you don't like the look you can just use water and remove portions or all and start over. Very easy.

Because you get salt in bricks any light patches is salt coming through you get a lot of this in the uk but enjoyed the video 😊

The method I use is common house filler applied and then wipe most off. Brick painted or not,but some individual bricks painted in different shades/colours. Flat finish sprayed to seal. If you are going to paint bricks ,do base colour first.For me this gives best result.Of course you may want to do painted brick (prototype) or simulate stucco,this is an option.

What if you combined the first twi methods? Buff off the mortar paint then dry brush on the red?

Great video Larry The india ink did the job

I use two methods that you may want to try first one I mix white India ink with a small drop of black India ink to make a grey color with a drop of flow aid. second way is to use Tamiya dark grey panel liner when dry I use a moist q tip with paint thinner to clean up the brick. On your building I would use the second type to get in the off set brick work.

Gee whiz! Not an hour ago I asked if you'd ever dealt with this subject, and bingo! Are you hiding a few thousand videos in your back pocket? In any event, thank you so very much for posting this. It's fascinating and VERY helpful. Regarding the baking soda test: I might try the same technique using a finely ground gray chalk. Presumably the fine grains are solidly pigmented. I wonder if they'd not dissolve as the baking soda did when you added the fixative. When I can try that, I'll post info about the result. If it seems to work well, I'll add process information. Thank you again.

The dry brush method requires 2 or 3 lightly applied coats brushing from all directions to get a good even look that finishes looking the brick color and not the mortor color .

I'll soon be kitbashing a backdrop factory built from old Revell/AHM enginehouse/bakery/newspaper kits, so this video was very timely for me. In my opinion, the India ink wash looked the best, at least for a dirty building. I did learn the hard way to avoid alcohol based washes over Vallejo paints and matt varnishes, as it gums them up if the wash is too heavy. In that case I use a water based acrylic wash, adding a flow additive if it's homemade to avoid puddling (unless I want puddling). I do plan on using hardware store red primer as you did for this upcoming project, so I'll likely use the India ink wash for that. Thanks for sharing!

Nice to see different methods side by side, but I thought you went way too fast without letting each application dry between methods. I also prefer using a smaller brush. My preferred method, which you did not show is to paint the brick, then apply a 10:1 'wash' of 'mortar' paint which can be blotted out of corners/crevices with a Q-tip or tissue - be sure to keep the walls flat until they are dry before you go to another side. This way the 'mortar' doesn't run to one side of the model. After it dries, a second application of the mortar wash may help to get the mortar to 'pop' a bit more. Your India Ink wash was similar to this, but I think using a grey paint wash gives a better look than the 'buffing' method.

A light white/gray coating on the brick is actually prototypical. It's known as efflorescence. It's what happens when water brings out the salts to the surface of the brick. I use a wash of light gray acrylic and cover the brick. I let it dry, then use a cloth and buff it off the surface. Letting it dry allows me to buff the surface of the brick, but it doesn't pull the wash out of the mortar lines. Any gray wash left on the surface is just efflorescence.

India ink comes in a variety of colors. Perhaps a grey ink would give a realistic mortar color.

thank you for your informative video, I too am thinking of removing paint from a industrial building and was wondering what method would be most useful in producing the best results? thank you, Ken.

I have used the acrylic wash method with good success but not happy with the way it builds up in the corners. Watching you use the powder brought to mind using a Pan Pastel for mortar. I think I have a brick structure to build so I think I’ll give it a try. I’m a transition modeler so I do like the ink wash look.

Have you ever tried liquid shoe polish for mortar lines?

Try talcum power!! We do it for creating mortar on model houses!!

Larry, You are missing two other methods I use that are a bit easier. Both are washes. One is an Acrylic and distilled water wash and the other 91% alcohol and acrylic gray or cement paint. I like Aged cement paint for old and light gray for newer buildings. The 91% alcohol method dries faster. I use Rustolium or Krylon brick colored primer like you do and let it dry. With the Acrylic and water method, mist a bit of 'wet' water ( distilled water and a drop of dawn dish soap is what I use) over the model. Holding it at an angle with the bottom down take the same sized brush you were using and dip it in the mixture. When you touch the model the paint will flow into the mortar lines and wick its way down the model. You can do the whole model or just one side. Let is set for about 3 to 5 minutes and set the model on its bass. Wick away any excess with a paper towel when it gets to the bottom. The other is just like your alcohol and India ink method only you don't pre-wet the model. When they are dry you can blend it in with India ink black or brown wash. Let that dry. Then you can either leave it as is or use a matte finish. Here's a neat trick for weathering grey on roofs. Paint the roof you color you want. then apply Dullcoat. After the dullcoat dries use your India ink and alcohol wash over the top of it. When it dries it leaves a grayish haze on it. Now if you don't like it, spray it with Dullcoat and it disappears.

I like the India ink technique the best. Have you tried different color India ink washes? I was looking on Amazon and they have browns, white and different colors that I think would work in addition to black.

Think I'm old school Larry. Paint the brickwork, drybrush in the mortar, ('buff') wipe off from the brick faces, dry brush in weathering and finally seal with dulcote. Prefer acrylics thse days.

I appreciate the demo. I'm wondering if you'd get a better effect if the white/gray mortar lines were restricted to a smaller section of a wall with some overlap left on the bricks in this area. The idea being that it's lime leaching out. Then zap it with the india ink to add the grime effect.

Indie ink excellent way for steam era.

Hi Larry, great to see your various techniques. I think I preferred adding the grey wash over the sprayed red brick and then wiping it off. You mentioned that you just might strip it and paint it again. Is there a video you have that shows how you do that? Would it work to strip paint off locos or rolling stock?

Your alcohol expired in 06!😀 love your videos

Your India Ink mix... That would be 10 parts Ink to 1 part water? And is this similar to the Tamiya Panel Accent Line Color?