Knights of Dice's 1889 Mignola Avenue Part 1

Last week my FLGS, Mind Games, got a huge resupply of Knights of Dice MDF terrain kits:
https://www.knightsofdice.com/store/

I had painted a few Western pieces (from some other manufacturer) a few years ago and wasn't overly impressed at the time as they didn't paint well and looked too much like theatre sets (boxy and plain). Partly my fault I think, so I decided to give this MDF terrain thing a second chance.

So far I'm glad I did.

I bought the 1889 Mignola Ave set as I'm been thinking of creating some generic urban terrain that can be used for 1930s gangster, superheroes and zombie apocalypse games:
http://knightsofdice.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=51_52&products_id=42

Now that, minus the graffiti, is the look I want to achieve. I didn't buy the cable-runs upgrade pack (as seen on the roof space), as I just wanted to see what the Knights of Dice kits are like. This is what it looked like when I did a dry fit:

Pretty good detail, went well together as the PDF instructions are clear. At this stage I was already happy. But how to get that final look?

The Terrain Tutor and Viv (from Knights of Dice) own videos were instructive and easy to follow. I'm basically following a mixture of these two videos:

First stage was to glue the inner walls and roof together, the front elevation molding (see below) and the front steps together. I then spray painted all the components black (I used Fiddly Bits - it's cheap and works for me). Here you can see the front elevation molding:

I then brushed a raw umber craft paint (Kaiser colour) over the brick sections, followed by a bright red dry brush (an old tub of Citadel Blood Red):

This was then followed by a rough dry brush of Vallejo Stone Grey (70.884). I was experimenting on the section that I knew would be covered by the other components, mainly trying to get a range of colours and textures:

The next part was messy. Using simple chalk ($2 from the Reject Shop) I followed Viv's method:

After wiping it down, I repeat the steps two/three times in the section I missed. I skipped the dry brush stage and just sprayed matt varnish over all the surfaces once to lock the chalk in:

Things are starting to take shape, I painted the concrete sections with two/three thin coats of cool grey craft paint (Kaiser colour):

Next step will be a highlight dry brush on the concrete sections and then start to glue it all together with PVA before washes, dry brushing and tufts, etc to make it more cohesive.