Weathering wood

[JpR62]

I found on facebook a photo album of a beautiful Portuguese fishing boats at the 1:16 scale. I join some of the photos founded on this album.

My question: do you know which techniques were used to obtain this result ?

For those who are interested, you can consult the complete album at the following address :

https://www.facebook.com/pg/Shipmodels.ua/photos/?tab=album&album_id=571832076319604

The team that build this model is an Ukrainian company.

 

[Hubac's Historian]

Very interesting model and convincing weathering.  I'm honestly not sure what was done, here, but if I had to guess, I would say that the first step would be to seal the wood with either lacquer or shellac - whichever would be more compatible with the series of semi-opaque washes that would be hand-applied over the seal coat.  I would guess that each layer of wash gets sealed under a fresh mist coat of clear sealer.  Whatever they did - even managing to represent the iron staining of the fasteners - they did a superlative job.

[Hubac's Historian]

Probably, now that I consider it, an initial base coat of stain to establish the underlying color, then the sealer coat, then the washes, and maybe even powders

[mtaylor]

From some of the Russian modelers that have posted here (and from some other countries) they seem all use a bitumen compound.  Apply and wipe off if I remember correctly.   You might do a search here on MSW for "bitumen" and see what turns up.

Edited April 15, 2018 by mtaylor

[JpR62]

Thanks for the answers. I will do some research with the term "bitumen".

 

[wefalck]

Not sure 'bitumen', whatever it really is, is a good solution. I know some of the Russians use it, but there are more easily obtainable paints.

 

It appears, as if indeed various washes of paint were used and some wiped off after application. I would think they were oil-washes, but this technique requires a lot of time, because the oils have to 'dry' (oxidise). No intermediate sealers are needed on properly dried oils. A semi-gloss varnish seems to have been used over everything to blend it in.

 

Using acrylics is faster, as they dry within minutes, so you can apply the next wash fast without disturbing the previous one. One can actully apply oil-washes on acrylics as well. They will deepen the colours. The same happens, when you apply a clear acrylic varnish over matt acrylic paints.

 

Very nice 'muleta' indeed, the model shown above.

[druxey]

I agree with wefalck: bitumen never fully dries or 'sets'. Problems can become apparent years later. Have you ever seen old brown varnish finishes that have 'alligatored'? That's because they were bitumen based. Acrylic or oil paints in washes are far more reliable.

[LFNokia]

judaic bitumen is liquid and acts more like a stain, not like the normal bitument, normal bitumen is the one that can give problems on the long term

 

judaic bitument is used on all kinds of materials to give a antique patina

 

here you can see a couple of links on it beeing used on wood

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xJVSJAU9ug

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yrf-5FsInLg

 

Sorry for beeing in portuguese/brasilian but in english i didn't find any good videos

 

Also keep in mind that depending on the brand/dilution the stain ranges from yelowish-brown-black

 

There are also recipes to make your own, i've never tried any, because i have easy access localy

 

this does look like it had some judaic bitumen used, but also looks like it had work with pigments done over it

 

You can also mix it with wax and work with the stained wax, there's some areas that really look like they had technique used

Edited April 20, 2018 by LFNokia

[Archi]

http://forum.modelsworld.ru/topic7684start45.html

[BobG]

This is a stunningly beautiful model. The weathering and craftsmanship on such an interesting small boat is phenomenal. I am very much drawn to small, working boats like these and I aspire to learn to do some realistic weathering. Thanks for posting this.

 

Bob

[BobG]

Well I'm going to gush over this model some more after going to the Facebook link in the first post of this topic and viewing the photos of this model in full size. It's simply incredible! Perfect in every detail and the finish is unbelievably beautiful. I think this is one of the most amazing ship models I've ever seen. Do yourself a favor and go to the Facebook link at feast your eyes on her. Congratulations to whoever built it!

 

Bob

[thegrindre]

I have many many years at wooden model building/construction in HO gauge model railroading and I've tried most everything. I've never built a wooden boat before but I used Floquil Stains and Paints to do all my wood weathering jobs. Most all my work looked very much like the model above. Not to be bragging but at age 72 I have a lot of modeling experience over the years and Floquil was my answer.

As mentioned above there is a lot of dry brushing, applying and than wiping off to get that type of appearance. It's very time consuming but as you can see it turns out 'perfectly'.

Unfortunately, Floquil is no longer be manufactured and I'd personally like to know what else I can use?

Although, Floquil can still be purchased on ebay for a price.

Hope this helps...

[BobG]

On 6/16/2020 at 12:47 PM, thegrindre said:

As mentioned above there is a lot of dry brushing, applying and than wiping off to get that type of appearance. It's very time consuming but as you can see it turns out 'perfectly'.

It would be great if you would make a build log of the Billing Boats African Queen, Rick. Will you be weathering it too?