Shingle Shed and Shifty Shack 11

I started painting by first priming the "stone" foundation with some blue-gray latex paint that was laying about, a left over from painting a chicken coop?  Not sure, but it looked like a good starting color.  I stippled it into the balsa foam so as not to kill the texture, and ensure good adhesion.  Stippling also helps adhere any dust that you did not manage to dust or blow off.  I like to start stone (or shingle) painting with some color--blues for granite, reds if it were sandstone. . . but some color.  Anything but gray.

To that I add some other colors, mixed down yes, but clearly colorful all the same.  A lighter blue, a yellow, a sienna, and a red.  Not to fussy about it, just to get some variation in the undercoat.  Looks like one of those "Brick Face and Stucco" jobs from the 60's or 70's at this point.  In almost every case, I don't like the color to sit on the surface, rather, I layer it up, and allow previous layers to show through.  Those of you offended by the brightness of the above will be relieved when I. . . . .

Hit it with a control coat of 50% gray.  In this photo it is picking up some light.  Some of the gray will invariably come off, so, it is a tad heavy, but not bad.  Just a mixture of lamp black and titanium white acrylic blown through the airbrush--no need to get more complicated, since color from underneath comes through.

I left things to dry for a while.  An important step.  If you don't, working wet on top of this will result in paint soup. . . not good for models, and not flavorful.

The next bit looks scary, but it is not. . . . I put some ink (the cheap stuff for learning caligraphy) in a porcelain tray,  I also had some plain alcohol handy. 

Alternating between the alcohol and the ink, I blotted the wall heavily, my goal being to get the ink into the pores of the balsa foam (that is where stippling the primer coat helps--maintains the texture). 

Looks scary, but notice the sheen.  Paint has the foam sealed, so one can blot off the wall with a brush, or even a paper towel.

In the above photo things are still wet, but you can see how the ink finds and loves those painted pores of the foam.  Almost there.

Before going further, I did a little color check against the adjacent work.  It all looks dark, but that is ok, since the next step is to lighten it all up with some dry brushing of white paint. . . nothing more, nothing less. . . .