Brick Red

Speaking a s a retired masonry expert, which brick red found in Ohio from the 1940s? There was quite a bit of variation, sometimes even in the same wall. In spite of the fact that fired clay quality control was pretty good in that era, there were variations, particularly from one firing to the next.

Any red that contains predominantly red iron oxide will probably be close enough. If the particular "brick red" that you are trying for has an orange cast, then add yellow iron oxide. If it is a very dark, deep red, then add brown iron oxide.

You might try the Floquil line of paints, they have several colors that can be use for brick red. 

http://www.testors.com/category/137236?n=1

Thanks to you Triarius, I knew there would be an expert opinion in the forum.   

The brick I am looking for is deep red so I will use the brown iron oxide. Would you try to find a pre-mixed color or blend?

I just read the Walthers March catalog and they had tips on brick, using mineral red, then spackle rubbed in and pencils to highlight individual bricks, then weathering. Looks good to me!  

I'd like to see a link to that as well!  I have painted a few brick walls for terrain pieces, but they were resin, and already had some depth and damage built in.  I painted them with a color called cavalry brown from Vallejo, washed them in paynes grey and brown tones, then drybrushed areas back to the original red-brown.

I'd love to see some pics of what you come up with!

Jake, if it were me, I'd probably either try blending my own from Tamiya red and brown, possibly with other colors, or adding artist's acrylics to red or brown Tamiya acrylics. But I once made part of my living by color matching paints, and I know enough about paints to avoid any problems this could cause. For others, it might be best to start with a Tamiya acrylic that looks closest, and blend with other Tamiya paint. It's best to go slow—3 drops of base color, one drop (or less) of the modifying color, let dry and match. The colors used to modify the base color (a dark red) should be dark brown, blue (not black), and a medium to dark  yellow. The closer you can find a starting color to the finish color, the better.

If you decide to try this with artists acrylics, remember that they are concentrated colors, and you will need to increase the solvent, and may need to increase the binder. You can use Future for the binder, which will increase the gloss of the final product, but many bricks have eggshell to semigloss surfaces, anyway.

Something I'm going to have to try, sometime: using Future as a base and blending it with artist's acrylics. If it works, it opens up a whole range of possibilities.

Killjoy (and Triarius) - I decided to go with a set color rattle can as I do not have any good reds in my airbrush colors. And I am cheap!! 

I chose Krylon primer "Ruddy Brown". I am putting it over a gray primer as it does not say it is specifically for plastics.

Anyway, I will shoot it and then start to spackle/weather. Results to follow.

In the meantime, here is a scan of that Walthers Workshop tip, via Photobucket. 

Thanks for the article, Jake. I seem to remember reading something like this decades ago in Railroad Modeler.

BTW: Instead of just wiping the plaster or Spackle off with water, try using a vinegar solution—works a lot better, and will slightly etch the plaster surface making it more receptive to colorants.

If you want rattlecan paint, several red oxide primers are a brick red (because most red bricks use clay with iron oxide in them). I found Rust-o-leum good, but several auto parts store red oxides also good.

You may want to do a wash with a lighter shade for the morter lines.

Thanks Don - that is why I chose the Krylon Ruddy Brown. It looks like brick and I have spackle to highlight and will use the techniques that Ross described. I will post pictures when.....

Well, I am going to start a new posting soon to show my work but I did try your idea of vinegar bu cannot say that I can tell the difference - except for stinky fingers!