Home Repairs

Now that all the shaded basecoat has been completed on the buildings, it is time to mark out where the line of shattered exterior stucco begins.  While it is possible to do this with a regular brush, I wanted to show a method that can create a more random looking edge.

We always trend towards creating patterns, and one way to prevent that is to take it out of our hands.  In this case, it will be a torn paper towel, which is something that I used for my spacescapes all the time!

The idea is to tear off some concave and convex pieces of the towel, allowing it to tear naturally.  It should also have some bits of fuzz off of these ends, so don't cut it with a scissors!

You can see the effect in the lower image, where the lighter color has been sprayed to the outside of the mask.  This leaves a very irregular edge along the area where the bricks have been exposed on the collapsed walls.

I try to emphasize this edge even more around shell holes.  Keep in mind, I will be going back over these with brushes and weathering powders to create additional effects.  This process has more to do with establishing where those edges should be.

However, if you are in a hurry, this is a very quick method for getting them presentable!

You can see the look that I am going for here.  If you want, you can place multiple masks on the walls if you are not comfortable spraying onto one side of a mask and risking overspray onto the bricks elsewhere.  

Here I have a wall where the remaining stucco forms a line in between two large areas of exposed brick.  You could use a few bits of blue tac to hold the masks in place.

For a stronger edge, you can use lighter tones, or continue to spray a bit longer.  Again, the whole idea here is to create more random patterns.

I think you can even recognize where the edge of the paper towel and the paint on the wall match.  I turned the mask backwards to get more shapes from that single mask.  I also had a few other pieces that ended up with edges that had a different shape.

This is also an illustration of why I left the bricks a little darker.  Had I highlighted them too much, this new layer would not have as much impact.  Also, I want to have lighter color mortar in between the bricks, and I have discovered that it is much nicer when it is lighter on the dark bricks.

For shell holes on walls that do not have as much exposed brick, I tried to experiment with masks made of blue tac.  It is more difficult to get the random torn edges, but that is something that I can do by hand.

The buildings are now ready for the next set of effects.  I will go back in to these areas with a brush and create a more pronounced edge, painting cracks and other indications of damage, etc.  The weathering powders should also create a more scorched, dusty appearance.

As for the interiors, I have created some wallpaper that should really help to add to the overall look of the buildings.  I did this on some Wild West structures, and that really made a big difference.

That will be covered in the next post, or a facebook live episode if it is too difficult to snap images during the process.

Here's a peek at one of the wallpapers that I made in photoshop.  I found a number of patterns in a "1930's wallpaper" search, and then took the small pieces into photoshop to create much larger sections to cover the walls of the buildings.

Each of type of pattern is actually 8 of these small chunks that I snagged on google.

Stay tuned for the next episode!!