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