I have the Bar Mills ‘Shack Pak’, 3 laser cut wooden structures, and this is my first time with a wooden kit. I’d really like to get the old, faded look as seen here …
I think it looks great but have no idea how it’s done. If someone could give me some tips on how to get this faded, old paint look… or maybe a link to a site that has a tutorial on doing it, I’d appreciate it. I think it’s one fine looking structure… [:)]
I know I’ll probably mess up the first one or two, but I gotta start somewhere.
Also check out last month’s (March) issue of MR and read the Scenery Step by Step article called “Weathering wood structures”, on pg. 40-42. The distress weathering on AMB’s McCormac’s Dry Goods store is quite nice.
To achieve the faded paint effect on wood structures, you need to apply a base coat. From looking at your example, i’m willing to guess that the base coat used on this model was done using Floquils CN Grey or similar paint. After the base coat dries (24-48 hours) you paint your final color by dipping your brush in thinner than into the paint before brushing onto the wood. In other words, you want to stain the structure with the paint in order to allow the base coat to show through. You then finish up by brushing on an alcohol and ink stain. For a more weathered look, you may want to spray the structure with dull coat prior to A&I stain. This will leave a nice frosty white “Aged” effect. But experiment first on a piece of scrap wood, as this technique takes a bit of practice to get used to.
It just goes to show that there are as many ways to skin a cat as there are cat-skinners.
My preferred way would be to go with all acrylics and achieve the look via mixing color. I would start with a base and dry-brush three or so different colors on top of it, in layers. Some of the colors should be close to each other.
Another way would be to start with the base or (multi-colored base) and brush on powder shaved off pastels. Then spray with Dull Cote. Repeat until look is acheived. This looks like what the picture shows.
With either one, I would do the weathering after the structure is built and just get the base done before assembly. Other cat-skinners might tell you differently.
The BarMills Kits usually have detailed instructions on the techniques used to get the results, Art & Jim are usually very good about this.
Here is one of my currently in progress scratchbuilds with a faded red paint job, I achieved this look by :-
1: Painted the wood white with a wash and then when dry used A&I to get a silver grey look.
2: Roughly painted the top red coat (not worrying about a good coverage infact the opposite)
3: Dried the red with a hairdryer and then used 180 grit sand paper to sand off the red untill I had it ‘faded’ to my liking.
With Bob and UKGuy answering already you have had some answers from some true masters. I am an utter novice at this so my answer is based on recent experience and experimenting rather than years of results.
No matter how you do it, it is a 2 step process. First you have got to get the look of the aged wood as the base. For my barn (in this weekends photo fun) I found that a wash of India ink in alcohol gave me that silvery aged wood that I wanted. As has been said above this can also be achieved with paints and other stains. There are even so proprietary wood aging products on the market (check out Micro mark). Once the base looks the way you want you then apply the top coat. Washing it on and rubbing it off in combination to get the effect. How you put it on (thin washes, dry-brush, full paint job) and how you take it off (sand paper, wire-brush) will determine the over all look. It is suprisingly not hard to do. I would not bother reading alot, better to use the time practicing on some scrap to see what you like.
All good advice here. You’re gonna love these kits - you almost can’t ruin these structures, especially if you’re going for that lived-in look.
After applying the Mail Pouch sign, I followed Bar Mills’ instructions to scribe it following the lines on the wood, giving it a painted on look. What a difference this little step makes. I showed it to my wife and she asked me when I learned to paint signs like that. I smiled and said in my best Slowsky voice, “There’s a lot of things you don’t know about me.” Heh-heh.
