Paint model brick buildings with a white wash

A bit back I posted a guide on how to paint model brick walls. Since the use of Moltofill is something that I always find a bit annoying (either not everything is coming off properly, or you end up removing paint), I tried another method: using a white wash.

You start the same way—paint the bricks in the colours you want them.

But now instead of the Moltofill for the mortar between the bricks, you simply add a white wash (or grey-ish, depending on the colour you want). I think I applied a mix of approximately 1:5 (colour : water), which turned out pretty decent. If you feel like the wash is too thick, you can just apply more water with your brush to make it thinner.

If you have too much paint in some places (likely corners), take a paper and put it in place just close enough to suck some of the excess wash away (without touching the piece itself).

And the result after the wash is dry. Not too bad in my opinion. I think in the future I rather use this approach than the Moltofill.

The downside, however, is that this method only works properly for flat pieces. If the piece you’re painting is a cylinder, for example, you will most likely have white marks you don’t want (due to the wash running down the curve). If this happens (as it did for me, when I painted a chimney), you might solve the problem with some dry brushing after applying the wash.