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Comments
My impression, from your pictures, is that your grain is deeper than the grain I am achieving with my brush. My grain shows up but yours really shows up. I think I have a case of brush envy. When I use steel wool on my wood it seems to polish and darken it. Your results do not show that so, for me, it must be technique. Keep the posts coming, please.
Mitch
Geezerbill
You should not get any color change or transfer with the steel wool if things are dry and on UN-STAINED wood. Not sure why you would be getting a polishing and darkening effect?? Might you have colored your wood first?
Thanks Bill, appreciate the support. I encourage questions and chatter regarding wood work here. This is our clinic not my clinic.
David U
so do I Ed, but I know where to find em!!
Glad you're aboard David, hopefully you'll enjoy the ride down grunge lane...
Right Phil, I think it's a key aspect to working with our wood. Glad to have this thread going and anxious to get to the good stuff but need to lay down some foundation work.
With that said, we all have our favorite way to color wood and Brett certainly encourages the modeler to create a build that is unique to the individual modeler. The beauty of Brett's instructions is that it sets the basis for color and finish choices within a reasonable color palate. O'Neills is a good example. There are three main structures and each one tells a story by how the wood is colored and finished. Each structure can have a range of color tones within a family of colors and still maintain the character and tell the story as intended. This is the cool thing about kit building, Brett sets the standard with his pilot model, we then introduce our own individuality and character by how we choose colors and detail and finish our wood, among many other details of course.
My choice for base color is by two main methods depending on the finish I want and that is either chalk or AI. Each has its merits and reasons I choose them, so lets take a peek. The chalk method developed by Brett is the most versatile when it comes to color. This method is clearly explained in the Craftsman University here on the web-site and not to be repeated here. The point is chalks allow a great variety of color choices by just selecting the chalk color you like. Keep in mind there is a fairly narrow palate of base wood color that makes sense...browns and grays are what I limit mine to.
To get a good gray base color the use of AI provides a good choice. I use several strengths of AI depending on what I want to do. To stain my stripwood I use the relatively low ink concentration AI and keep putting on successive applications, with a dry time in between, until I get the darkness I'm looking for. In addition, regardless of weather I use chalk as the base or AI, neither will be used alone...if your confused it will become clear next time.
So lets see an example..
The wood on the left was stained using chalk (408.3) and the ones on the right with about 3-4 applications of the AI. You can clearly see the difference and both would be applicable in certain situations. Now, some folks would see fit to take what you see here and start building their walls...no, no, no...shaking my head in print! This is only where the fun starts......
So..I have grained my stripwood and then stained. From here on out I will use the wood that was stained with the AI a gray color as it photographs just a bit better.
The next step I take is to sand off the sharp edges of the boards. The first time I tried this I was sold on the concept and the results. Sanding the edges creates boards that appear warm and worn and despite being butted up against each other appear spaced just a bit. This also serves to introduce our first level of contrast and that is the lightening of the board edges. It was mentioned that many modelers may do the detail work on the boards and THEN stain the wood. The only problem I have with this is it creates a monotone color on the boards and doesn't highlight all the nice details that are added.
Here is what the boards look like with the edges before and after sanding...
Boards before I sanded the sharp edges off. Note the monotone color of the boards and very tight space between them.
Same boards with the edges slightly rounded. Also note the contrasting of the light edges and the slight separation appearance. Now granted, these are subtile differences but when added to all the other details I will be demonstrating it makes a sizable impact on the overall finished wall.
The tool I use that's an indispensable component to my board detailing is a sanding stick. My hand model is featuring the one I use below...
Not any secret weapon here just a sanding stick that most of you are familiar with. However, it's how I use this thing is why I would not be without it for board detailing...
The flat surface is utilized for basic sanding and is what I used on the edges just illustrated. The tip of the stick is where the secret lies...more on that next time.
The business end of the sanding stick. This is where the tool is so valuable for board detailing which we will discuss in the next installment. Following the rounding of the board edges the next thing I concentrate on is detailing the board ends. Both for the bottom and top of the walls and where two boards butt together. In either case the first step is to slightly round the board end. This is in lieu of detailing the board end. This process creates an instant weathered look and when coupled with the board end detailing that will be featured next time really sets the foundation for a nice weathered board.
I have used the sanding stick and slightly rounded each board end a bit. Notice the two boards on the right...I sanded the top edge on one side or the other just a bit to create some variety and serves to thin the board edge down a bit. Also lightens the wood here and there which will give me nice contrast as we continue. Next time I will start detailing the board end...
You may get there eventually in your demonstration but you must differentiate your weathering between floor boards and siding boards. Floor boards get worn and weathered while siding boards get weathered.
Mitch
Sanding the edges slightly is sort of a "dry brush" technique in that you are highlighting the edges--without using any paint at all!
Also, if you look at pictures of old weathered barnwood, you'll notice that when they age and dry out, the tend to warp--the board edges will curl in or out. I believe this is called cupping. Your technique achieves this in a simple effective way.
Here's a quick 1:1 example. See how the extreme left edge is lighter--almost white, on several of these boards?
Okay...sorry to threadjack (again!). Back to Ken!
Thanks Mitch and yes, I will address the differences in floors vs walls.
Hey Bill...thanks my man, and see my response to Phil regarding the sanding thingy. Great pic and thanks for the real world example, it really helps illustrate the point. Love having you guys wade in here...love it don't we?
Here's a modeling example of the cupping effect. Rather sanding the edges, I used a new exacto and lightly shaved some the edges. I took this picture with my iPad, so the colors are a little bold, but you get the idea:
Ken, I've always liked the look you get by sanding the boards. Started on my first SW kit. And on the next one, I am definitely going to focus some attention on the corners as you show here.
Yea, why do they have to name things so...well you know...sanding wand? Why not sanding rod or sanding stick? Don't wave it around Carl...just get to the serious detailing.
The image below is a small portion of the wall I just finished for the BlueSky build I'm working on. This section is the Main Barn. Note the various details, these will all be covered in subsequent installments here. Note the sanded board edges and sanded and slightly rounded board ends. That's where we are now with the clinic.
Sorry about my last post. I meant to say I've been sanding the wood in the way you describe since I built my first SW kit 5 or 6 years ago. It was the O scale rigging shed since you asked. And I'm still going to put some extra focus on the corners next time.
Geezerbill
Geezerbill