"Painting wood" Topic

Evening all,

I'm starting on my Old West buildings. I'm building them drawing strong inspiration from Gugnir and the Imelda blog. So, the question is – how do I paint the wood strips I'm using to look like, well, wood?

I have a bunch of Foundry paints, a few GW ones, the GW Foundation paints and their new washes so references to those ranges would be of most use, but if you know a brilliant technique that requires other materials then don't hold back

Thanks,

Stephen

ps – sorry about the C18th crosspost – slip of the mouse!

GW Foundation's light tan and light grey will work well for sun-bleached wood.

Various shades of gray, drybrushed over one another.

For texture, if needed, you can scratch the surfaces with a razor saw, and then paint it.

I think the Foundry Rawhide palette is quite good, too.

I sometimes have to paint wood grain on my airplanes. For new wood or varnished wood you want to bring out the wood grain. One way to do this is to paint a surface with a water soluble shade of brown that comprises most of the wood. Then you get one of those splayed out artists brushes -- fan brush.

Link

While the brown paint is still wet, you impregnate the fan brush with alcohol, then dip the ends of the fan in a black water soluble paint. Place the fan at about 30 degrees press down somewhat and drag the brush through the wet brown paint. This will leave a number of black tracks. Some will actually be underneath the brown paint.

Practice this a bit on cardboard to get the technique down. If you screw up you can always repaint the brown and have another go at it.

That said, if the structure isn't new or varnished, within about 9-12 months raw wood will take on a gray coloration. Just go look at a neighbor's fence -- you will see what I mean.

mjc

here is a very simple method for unpainted weathered wood. Find some rusty scrap metal (old nails, washers, steel wool etc). Put some vinegar in a jar or empty marjarine tub. Put the rusty bits it the vinegar. Let soak for a few days. The longer the soak the stronger the solution is. Paint the wood with the solution. This turns the wood to that grayish silvery look of weathered wood. Additional applications increase the effect.

It works.

Sound advice, except for the bit that might have my buildings confiscated by drug sniffing dogs!

Are you using real wood to build the buildings?

Quidveritas,
That is really great! I've wanted to buy one of those brushes for years; they just look so cool! But, I had no idea what I'd do with the thing, so I didn't buy one: I have a little self discipline. Now I've got an excuse, so it's off to the craft store tomorrow!
Thanks!!
Grelber

Thanks everyone; what a range of approaches for me to choose from!

I am using real wood for the construction, so I'm hoping some grain will show anyway. I don't want too strong a grain as I think that might look a bit weird at 28mm scale?

This is the wood I'm using picture I 'liberated' a pack of them from my school lab prep room

I reckon I might give Blind Old Hags approach a go on a test few pieces of offcut, and compare that with some grey drybrushing.

When I get it sorted I'll inflict the results on you

Thanks all.

Try about three or four rusty bits to a 1/2 to 1 cup of vinegar to start off.

If you have it take a cotton ball size tuft of steel wool and wet it to get it rusty, then add this as one of your bits.

The vinegar smell will go away in a few days after application.

Cheers! I guess that's my job for this weekend

btw, do you do that straight onto the wood, or do you prime it with anything first?

straight to the wood, no priming needed.

The more rust you have the better too.

Be patient, it may take a few applications to get your desired results depending on the strength of the solution.

A neat effect is to apply the solution to only part of the wood. The capillary action pulls the solution along the wood grain and gives the effect of wood that has not fully weathered yet.

I havent tried this yer but I do not see any reason why you cannot add a small amount of ink or paint to the solution to vary the color. Im going to try this out to try and replicate this effect.

bodie.com

I generally use washes, then drybrush up, presuming the wood grain in the casting is present.

Just as an aside, I find that washing, then drybrushing up over several layers, works great for "temperate" climates where there's solid rainfall. In desert or "arid" climates, the washing just doesn't look right, and I generally use just a consistent pattern of drybrushing. It just looks dustier, and – well – "drier" than it would with washes.

I bought a set of woody colours from Magister Militum.

I think I started with a medium drybrushing of either "Old Thatch" or "Canvas" over a spray black undercoat. They're both mucky greeny-brown shades. Adds depth. Then lightly "Wood Brown" to just add a hint of colour, then "Old Wood" which is a light grey.

The result is that the buildings look faded, but not monochrome coloured.

I agree with JCB -- drybrushing does produce more of the right air of dustyness.

Caveat -- I've got Snapdragon & Hovels buildings which have quite deep grain on them.

Although when I tried it on balsa it also produced good results. The thing I'd caution is not to get the wood overwet with paint -- the wood swells and your grain goes away..

For years I went through life thinking wood was brown then someone pointed out that dry wood is actually grey in colour. i have never looked back!

IR1

"dry wood is actually grey in colour"

Living tree bark isn't all that brown either, in many cases.

I use coffee stir sticks to make my western buildings with;

link

They come is a couple different sizes, toss the hockey stick shaped ones to the side, glue and clamp, in no time at all you have a nice pile to build up from. For staining, be carefull with the glue sides turned inwards.

I've found that a mix of grey and tan, applied thinned, works pretty well. Variations in coverage are desired.

I then give it a "dry brush" with 220 grit sandpaper.

Comes out pretty nice in my opinion.

There's also a guide on how to paint wood on Pardulon.
Its link