STEP 3 PRIMING AND PAINTING

Because Hydrocal is porous, it will quickly absorb any paint and weathering applied to it. To remedy that, the manufacturer recommends priming the castings. I applied two coats of Rust-Oleum Painter’s Touch 2X Flat White Primer (334019) to the main building and annex ❶.

I let the Flat White Primer dry for 24 hours before painting the building. I’ll admit that I was a little nervous about this, as the technique the manufacturer recommended was one I hadn’t tried before. I mixed 1 part FolkArt Terra Cotta craft paint (433) to 3 parts water. Then, using a 1" wide chip brush, I applied the paint in a vertical motion from top to bottom.

I worked on one surface at a time, keeping the building flat and letting the paint dry completely before proceeding. I found one coat of the thinned Terra Cotta looked too light, so I put on a second coat ❷.

Next, I used Vallejo Model Color Neutral Gray (70.992) for most of the trim on the main building. I turned to the

same company’s German Camouflage Beige (70.821) for the concrete trim on the annex and below a couple of windows on the main building ❸. You may need to put on two coats to get complete coverage.

The walls on the annex are brick. To add some random pops of color, I used a 10/0 paintbrush to pick individual bricks with Vallejo Panzer Aces Light Rust (301) and Yellowish Rust (303) ❹.

I then applied FolkArt Raw Umber (485), thinned 1 part paint to 3 parts water, using the same techniques as before ❺. The darker paint settled into the recesses, bringing out more of the neat textures on the walls.

Finally, I brush-painted the boarded-up annex windows with Lifecolor Cold Base Color (UA 717) from the company’s Weathered Wood set. Unfortunately, the color was almost identical to the concrete trim. To make the boards stand out more, I drybrushed them with Lifecolor Colorless Hemp (UA 757) from its Hemp Ropes and Tarps set ❻.

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