Bricks on the Artitec Building

While looking around the Internet for tips about using masking tape, I've come across some very interesting advice: the normal masking tape, the light-colored one, that when looked up close seems to have all sorts of ridges, is actually not the way to go for miniature painting. The trouble with this - even excellent for use on regular house work - is that it's too thick, making the paint sprayed from the airbrush to accumulate on the edges. Also, even if one tries to really level it, it usually bleeds paint. Enter the 3M vinyl masking tape, which solves these issues, and above all, it's not that sticky, plus the vinyl can be maneuvered a bit to take the desired shape. Somewhat pricy, at 15 euros you can get this as a 6 mm wide by 30 metres long strip.

 After carefully masking one side of the building, so that only the brick parts were visible, paint was prepared:
 0,6 ml XF-7 (Tamiya Flat Red)
 0,1 ml XF-64 (Tamiya Red Brown)
 0,7 ml X-20A (Tamiya Thinner)

This was airbrushed in 3 coats, using a lamp to help dry the paint between the sessions for 10 to 15 minutes. After everything dried overnight the mortar lines were done - first using a dry cloth with Woodland Scenics Concrete to cover the whole brick surface (this needs to be in sufficient quantity, since it will be left for about 10 minutes to dry - when this happens the paint tends to recede from the lines between the bricks; if this happens, another layer should be applied using the cloth soaked in Concrete color). After this has been left to dry for 10 - 15 minutes, a damp cloth can be used to remove the dried color from the bricks' face.

Even if the mortar might not be removed 100% from the bricks themselves, not to worry, since the Artitec guys seem to be having a similar finish on their product cover. As for the brick color, this was chosen so that it matches that of the Brawa platform detailed back here

Artitec Kits

It's been a while since I first noticed the Artitec kits in the offers of various model shops. Pictures of the complete models really looked awesome, by far the most realistic among the rest of the crowd. Trouble was the usual online retailer I'm using - LokShop - doesn't offer any Artitec products. But since I had my eye on a small building that had just the right dimensions to fit on the D segment, and also they had a nice small ship (only the part above the water) that fits well in one of the layout's corners, I decided to go ahead and order directly from their site (http://hobbyworld.nl/). Due to a certain local holiday, the delivery was set back about 2 weeks, but finally arrived. Luckily for me, I found out a couple of months ago that the Artitec kits come unpainted, so that awesome picture of the desired model is really up to you. 

So I went ahead and started working on the Lantern Building (#10228). Don't assume you'll be dealing with state-of-the-art, laser-cut materials. Actually it's a really good opportunity to see how models evolved over the years. Compared to the Faller station I got  last year, this has its issues. First of all, the "Copyright 2005" gives the fist clue. Then you're greeted by resin parts, all having a pretty thick film on the back, which needs to be sanded away. The second photo shows my first attempt at it, however I had to go and buy some real sandpaper to get the work done. In the end it took more than 2 hours total time to only get the parts separated...and a lot of messy plastic dust on the way.