I am trying to capture that old weathered wodden siding look. Attached are some pictures. I’m trying to get that old white/tan, the color that decades old wooden phone pools evolve into. Any suggestions? I’ve dry brushed some light grey since these photos were taken and I am getting closer, but not quite there. What have you had success with? Going to lean on the pros for this one. The kit I’m building is Majestic Hardware from Bar Mills, in HO scale. Thanks for your help.
I like to stain with a wash of India ink in alcohol. You can build it up to get a nice silver grey patina of aged wood. Then you can use various techniques to give you a faded peeling paint look on top of it.
I start with the predominate color on the wood. If you want to wind up with an old building that appears to have all the paint gone and heavy weathered to a silvery gray, start with a gray stain or gray paint thinned slightly. This is the base coat that you work up from. Areas that you want to look not so quite weathered, apply a little tan or brown stain or wash to add the normal wood color over the gray, just in the places you want. For a bit of paint, add a light wash of color on top of that.
Starting with a newly painted building and trying to make it look old can be done for sure, but is harder.
For achieving the same look on a wood building made of plastic, I start with a gray paint. Next I paint over that with a wood tan color. Over that I paint the color coat as a wash. I usually start with the color full strength on a brush and add water or alcohol to spread it around so the paint color density or shade is varied. Once all that has dried and hardened for a couple of weeks, I take a fiberglass eraser brush and start removing the paint layers in different areas until the brown or even the gray shows. the final weathering is done with chalks.
If lettering or decals are to be used, they are applied after the color coat, before the paint layers are stripped away.
go to rrline forums, those guys work with wood craftsmen kits all the time. since you’ve already painted this kit, and you’re close, try dry-brushing a whitewash on some boards now to get the bleached out look you’re aiming for.next time you’re doing a wood kit, try an a/i wash first, then a grey stain and then a wash of color using a make up sponge or an old towel with an uneven surface to dab on color…
I don’t seal the wood. I like it to absorb the ink wash. I use 90% alc on the basis that is has less H2O, wash both sides of the panel to reduce warping and then flatten out under books later if I have some warp post painting. There are some images and some of the basic steps I took in the following threads.
I’ve never had India ink congeal, but I use one teaspoon full to a bottle in alcohol. Make sure your ink is black, some blacks have a tendency to dry bluish. Black shoe dye will also work.
Your photos capture the look of really old unpainted buildings such as you sometimes see in New England, or Michigan Upper Peninsula ghost towns. Nicely done.
For that almost “silvery gray” look of old telephone poles, I have had good success with powders such as Bragdon (self advesive so you do not need to protect with DullCoat unless it is going to receive a lot of handling). Charcoal sticks such as you can get from art supply stores work well too. I have also had good luck with a more frugal substitute, that being burnt wood or burnt wine corks taken from the livingroom fireplace. A bit of charred wood scraped on the unpainted wood is spread around with a Q-tip and does effectively darken the unpainted wood. Rub harder and more of the original wood tan color coms through. If you overdo it and rub too much, just apply more of the charred wood/cork or charcoal stick.
For lighter shadings pure fireplace ash is also an effective “dry stain” on bare wood. You can read more about my use of ash and charred wood here, on page 4:
If you seal the wood surface w/ too strong a coat of sealer, may times you will loose any graining and stain penetration. Further weathering of the wood surface including depth of color and graining is lost. Then only susequent layers, drybrushings of color is left to show any color variations.
Diute the sealer and apply washes. You may need to experiment wil the ratio of sealer (laquer or shelac) to appropriate thinners to gain the effect you’re looking for. I perfer using white shellac and thin w/ denatured alcohol. To get a uniform stain color w/o too deep an apsobtion of stain the ratio will vary from 1:2 to 1:4 (shellac/ alchohol) This can be done w/ Dulcoat and laquer thinner as well. With practice, you can experiment on samples and find the proper ratios as well as the stain application and thinning of the stain also. If you are working w/ sheet stock, seal both sides as some warping can occur from wetting of one side only. This is esspecially true if washes of a water base product may be used. For washes of acrylics don’t thin w/ water, use alcohol. I like to do final weathering w/ artist’s acrylics dry bushed and Braegdon powders.
Making sure to use the correct india ink was always an understanding I had as well. From what I have learned, at places like the RR line forums, they say to not use acrylic india ink in the alcohol. It just beads up and floats on the top and wont mix with the alcohol like oil does in water. The Higgins brand waterproof type is the kind I was told is the best kind to get. Sorry if it sounds like second hand information. I have been looking to learn how to do this as well.
