Old stucco is no joke!

My friends, sculpting the stucco might be one of the fastest and easiest tasks, but painting it is a whole different story! 

Just as before, I primed the entire facade with Tamiya Deck Tan. This time I skipped the white primer altogether. The generous treatment with black ink was definitely the most satisfying part of the process! 

The base color of the stucco was created completely with sponges using Graphite, Medium Sea Grey, Deck Tan and some Neutral Grey. Lots of fun, and a part of me wanted to leave it like this because it created such a nice effect when combined with the ink-washed base coat. But my goal was stucco with some peeling paint! 

Here it got a bit complicated because I'm not very familiar with the method so far. After two generous coats of VMS chipping fluid, I hit the surface with sponges once again, with various tones of Deck Tan, Off White, and British Khaki. These were chipped off with water, and the process was repeated with Flat Red + Light Earth on the decorative elements. The surface looked quite messy at this stage.

After sealing it all with flat varnish, I gave the whole facade a diluted black ink wash. Then I outlined the windows, the pillar, the electric cable, all the details. More ink wash into all the cracks and other flaws on the surface, and finally a very meticulous treatment with a mixture of Deck Tan and Offwhite for all the highlights and refined cracks. This took a lot of time but was totally worth it IMO. 

I'm not sure if it meets the photo-realistic style aesthetic that I was going for with the factory facade, it look a bit more stylistic... but it definitely has some kind of style :D 

Alright, now I want to paint the cinderblocks and bricks, and hopefully I'll get these done before Christmas!