Painting Ruined Buildings

Painting ruines is quite fun. Since I've started playnig Mordheim (which is as complete ruined city) I've done quite a few ruines and I developed a particular way of painting them. This way uses existing and new techniques. The end result will be a very dirty looking characterfull terrain piece. I hope you'll enjoy reading this artikle. -Michael Besems-

For building a ruin, look in the modelling section

Walls

If the walls are build using structural paint I usually drybrush them. Otherwise I use the same colors but instead I paint them on. For some of my houses I've also did a very rough drybrush on smooth walls, but this doesn't seem to give the best results. The first layer will probably be a Dark Brown. Say Bestial Brown. I use this color a lot because it makes for a very dirty look if left around the edges.

Next comes a lighter color. There are some options for this to go over the brown.
- SnakeBite leather (for brown or white buildings)
- Red Gore (or Scab Red)
- Camo Green + Bestial Brown

These colors are also drybrushed (quite roughly). If you were going for the brown building you could stop at this stage or perhaps add a little Bubonic Brown or Bleached Bone hear and there for some lighter spots.

If you were going for the White building you should continue by drybrushing heavily with Bleached Bone. Make sure both the snakebite and bestial brown stay visible at the edges and 'through' the bleached bone. Add some weathering (as explained later in this article)

If you were going for the Red building you can either leave it here and have a very dark red building or you can drybrush further with a lighter shade of red. Personally I've never done this because my ruins all become part of the dark and decaying city of Mordheim and any bright flashy houses wouldn't fit in.

If you were going with the came green do another drybrush with came green on it's own.

Note that not all houses have to be weathered. The dark red for example looks old as it is, mainly because of it's darker color.

Weathering is making stuff look dirty, rusty and generally old. You almost can't go wild enough with weathering. An example of extreme painting is some of the Mordheim houses I've done. The wooden floors are constructed of nothing but cardboard strips. It's the paint job that makes them look good.

Here's what I did:

First off all we simply spray paint it black. Touch up any parts that weren't hit by the spray.
Next Drybrush an appropriate dark brown, I used bestial Brown.
Next Drybrush a lighter shade of brown, I used Snakebite Leather.

So far so good, now to dirty it up. First of all, were gonna spill some blood. Take out your pallet and mix red wash with red gore. About 50/50 will do. If the blood isn't red enough, mix a little blood red in there. Take a brush and apply it to the wood in small puddles.
Now in stead of leaving it like that, take a piece of cloth, q-tip (a.k.a. cotton swab) or something similar. The Q-tip will work best, because it gives better control. Although you have to be careful it doesn't leave cotton over your work.

Take the q-tip and roughen up the patch of wash. This way you'll get a blended-in into the wood, like what happens when the puddle of dirt is left to dry for a few years.

This is done on a building I've painted bleached bone, using the colors described above.

Next we take the outside of the building. Mine is painted in bleached bone. Which gives a fairly bright result at first, but with a little effort can be weathered so it'll look like a building that once was white, but has been without care for quite some time.

Here's what I did:

First paint the whole thing in bleached bone. Next take out the snakebite leather. Put it onto your pallet and thin it with water, about 2:1, water:paint should do. Take a paintbrush and q-tip. Paint the following in very small portions to prevent the paint from drying.
Paint around the windows and doors with the snakebite leather. Don't go for a straight line, but roughen it up a bit, real dirt isn't going to build up in straight lines to.
The line attop the windows and door can simply be roughened up a bit to give a sort of blend like with the washes on the wood. The sides and bottom of the windows should be 'dragged down'. Place the q-tip into the paint at the top of the window and drag it down toward up to 1/2 " under the window. This represents the rain washing part of the dirt away.

If the q-tip doesn't give the desired effect (it's kinda hard) try other stuff. Cloth, old brushes or similar. I often even use my fingers for this. If you do use your fingers, be careful not to touch anything until you've cleaned them. Those very large fingerprints somehow look out of character in the middle of a wall.