Your First Laser Kit 04 - Basic Barn Kit - Painting the Barn Outside

The black on the back is dry, so let's flip it over and start painting the outside.

 I decided that my barn needed to be the rusty red color that is popular in the rural south.  It is old, so it will be a bit faded and brownish looking.

 I use Dr. Ben's Weathering Pigments for several reasons.  Mostly because of the variety and they are in flat, round containers that are easy to handle.  This is the Railroad Weathering Set with 27 colors.

 As you can see, this is a comprehensive set.  Rather pricey, but it will last me almost forever.  Black is the only color I may reorder in about 10 years.

 Let's add a little grain to the wood first.  This is a brass bristle brush that you can buy at any harware or DIY store.

 I take the brush and rub with the grain of the wood back and forth in a scrubbing fashion.  This adds some age to the flat plywood "boards".

 Next I'll grab a firm bristle flat brush.  You want one that is durable because you are going to scrub the pigment into the wood.

 Dr. Ben's Chicago Brick looks like just the right color of red and brown.

 I always work pigments in a tray just in case I knock something over so that you can pour the pigments back in the jar.

 The effect I want is that the barn is fading and is very water worn at the bottom.  Normally any wall is darker at the top under the eave of the building and fades as it goes toward the ground.  At the ground level water and soil eat away at the boards so they are going to be gray.  We'll not paint the end of the walls.  Load up your brush with pigments (I used no water or alcohol, just pigments) and apply them to the top of a wall in a scrubbing type action.  Gradually push the pigments down and stopping about 1/8" from the bottom.

 This wall has a little darker top, some streaks on the wall, and nothing at the very bottom.

 The door is to be cut out, so I won't stain it yet.  You can see the mottled look the pigments give the boards.

 The eave of the sides of the barn is more pronounced so it would weather less and would be darker.  We'll start at the top and grind the pigments into the board.

 Next, we'll work the pigments down and fade them out toward the bottom, again leaving the bottom unpainted.

 We want to open the doors, so we need to slice them apart now.  Figure out the center board, and using a razor blade (very thin) slice through the door.

 The area under the hayloft door will get very dirty and weathered, so we won't make it too red.  Fade the rest of the barn.

 The lean-to is newer, so the paint wouldn't have weathered as much.  I made these almost solid pigment and was sure to clean out the grooves in the wood to make it look newer.

 Tap off the rest of the loose pigments into the tray and then put them back in the jar if you like.  I throw them away because sometimes they pick up moisture and the adhesive in them activates.

 Let's grab the weathered black.  Actually I probably should use a gray like a pastel gray, but Ben doesn't make a set of white to gray highlighting and board weathering pigment set.  (HINT HINT, Dr. Ben!)

 Dark is dangerous!  Use it VERY sparingly.  Notice I have a rag handy to wipe off the excess.  A little goes a very long way.

 Notice the patch of black on the side.  I remove a lot of the pigment before I touch the brush to the model.  On the bottom ends of the walls I add a very thin swipe of black to the unpigmented areas to make it look like the paint had worn off and the boards are rotting away.

 The area under the hayloft door gets a little more weathering, as do both doors since people push them shut with their dirty hands.  The front takes a lot more wear.

Finally I give it a light coat of Testor's Dullcoat and let it dry overnight.  You will notice the pigments bleed into each other a little, which is what we want.