Good morning, I am at the point on the barn I am building to weathering and I am not sure how to weather real wood. Last night I put a wash of black paint and water on the floor of the loft and look what it did.
The light spots are where the glue got on top of the boards. (I know, be more careful). I like the way the rest of the floor weathered. What can be done to fix the problem? I was wondering if I were to seal the barn with Dul-Coat before I weathered it would this make the glue spots weather the same as the wood?
Are there any differences in weathering the real wood as th weathering plastic or styrene? Thanks, Mike
PS… I don’t know how long these will stay up as Photobucket is messing with me this morning and I may have deleted the wrong account)
About the only way you’re going to correct that is to lightly sand the glue spots off and reapply your wash.
Micro mark sells a couple of wood aging products.
http://www.ares-server.com/Ares/Ares.asp?MerchantID=RET01229&Action=Catalog&Type=Department&ID=46
If you seal the building first, it will all take stain about as well as your glue spots do. Plain bare wood will give you more realistic results.
Mike,
If you are working with real wood your problems, issues, and techniques are the same as a full scale woodworker building a piece of furniture. Real wood absorbs paint and stain into the fibers of the wood. Glue spots seals the wood and keeps the stain from being absorbed.
Specifically for your barn loft you could try to sand the entire surface with a fine grit sandpaper. If the glue spots are shallow then the sanding may remove the glue on the surface. after sanding you could give the loft another light wash of stain.
The color result from your current barn loft effort looks good. Since barn lofts should have a lot of old hay, hay bales, and boxes scattered about, you may want to just leave it as it is and use these materials later to hide the glue spots.
The more important issue is going to be when you stain the sides of the barn. If you have glue spots on the sides, those would not be as easy to cover. you can check for glue spots by giving the sides a wash of plain water, just like you did the stain. The water will absorb into the wood making it look damp (obviously) but will not absorb into any glue spots. The glue spots would look shiny or a lighter color. You could then try sanding the offending glue spots, if any.
If you are wanting to have the same grey, driftwood color effect on the outside of your barn becareful when you sand. If you sand in only one spot, then that spot will also accept stain differently and you will just have a larger “spot.” Sand all over to the same amount to keep the absorption rate the same. When you sand or stain, always do it with the grain of the wood. When you stain, try to stain one board at a time. That way each board will get a different amount of stain a will look more like individual boards.
Most barns were painted at one time or another so some well worn (typically) red paint stain over the grey stain would be appr
An India Ink in alcohol wash works well for wood, but would also exhibit the problem you are seeing with the glue spots.
Since the problem you are seeing is with the interior, the some sanding of the offending areas followed by more stain would be a reasonable approach. How about simply disguising some of them with straw and other things found in a barn?
How are you intending to complete the outside of the barn. Just the stain/wash or are you going for a painted look? Perhaps old and ageing paint? Either way, I think I would start with some sanding to get rid of any glue smudges.
A really nice effect can be achieved by staining the wood. Letting it dry. Then lightly dab on some rubber cement. let it dry. Then paint the structure the desired color and let it dry. Finally take some masking tape and press it onto the painted walls. It will tend to lift the rubber cement revealing the weathered stain underneath. The result can be a pleasing worn paint look.
This is an example on some HO clapboard siding.
Another technique for wood that is simple and may actually cover some of the glue spots is to use shading with a soft pencil, or you could use weathering powders. This is what I did on the front of this barn. It helped to cover some of my glue spots.
Real weathered wood is not all the same consistent color so don’t worry if there is some variation.
As can be seen from my prototype picture.
Edit:
It looks like John was typing essentially the same advice while I was constructing an answer. Anyway, you should have several avenues to follow towards what looks like it is going to be a fine model.
Still, Simon, me boy, I wouldn’t have missed your response for the world. [:D]
-Crandell
When you work with real wood, stain all the pieces before you glue and assemble them. This will prevent any glue from sealing the wood. Wood is very forgiving of painting errors especially with stains. Sand the glue spots and restain them with a mixture of india ink and alcohol. This will look very realistic by creating a very subtle difference in the overall hues. You can also use black and brown leather dyes mixed with alcohol to get a realistic look on wood. Go to an arts and crafts store and get artist acrylic paint in the tube (the cheapest brand is more than adequate) in the “earth colors” eg. burnt and raw sienna and umber and make a dilute stain by adding a small drop of paint to about a cup of water. Experiment with the amounts by trial and error on a scrap piece of wood. These methods have always produced very realistic results for me.
Thanks for all the help. I guess I will go with the idea of putting some hay, old furniture in the loft to hide the glue spots. I really don’t like the idea of sanding the .012’’ thick lumber, it breaks very easy. I put a gray wash on the inside and outside walls and let it dry and then went over the outside walls with a wash of red. I will let that dry and put another red wash up closer to the eves, I think it will look OK, This is a learning experence and I will try to do better on the next one.
SIMON, I really like the way your barn turned out, That is almost exactly what I am looking for, with the exception that I want a little red showing on the walls.
I guess I better go and get some more 2X6’s ordered as I am not going to have enough to do the rafters. Thanks again. Mike
PS. Someone mentioned to stain the wood before I glue them together, will the glue still adheir (SP) to the lumber?