Yellow Boxwood from Model Expo

[kgstakes]

Basswood can be stained and also painted.  If you do stain basswood, you have to treat it so that the stain will go on even or I've used with great success to stain basswood is a stain/poly mix that stains and finishes in one coat.  It helps with blotching.  

 

But Gregory, you're right if you stain raw basswood, it will blotch and not look good.  

 

For structures and ships you could do as well, but weathering with a stain on basswood to give an old weathered look works quite well.

 

Every building in the picture below was made out of basswood and only stained and weathered.  No pretreating of the wood was done on these structures.

 

 

The rolltop desk pictured below is made from basswood and stain/poly finish applied.  Three coats and no blotching was done with this technique. 

 

 

Edited March 29 by kgstakes

[tom q vaxy]

desk is beautiful

[tom q vaxy]

in my naivete, i was falling to the trend of artisanal woods.

 

for the most part, i'll probably use basswood and render some exotic incantation as i work with it.

 

it will make me feel special, anyway.

[allanyed]

I contacted Model Expo and asked what kind of wood this is. Caveat emptor       

  I wrote:

 

Is this boxwood buxus sempervirens (English boxwood) or calycophyllum multiflorum (Castello)? If not, can you please let me know what species it is? Thank you kindly for your help.

 

Their reply is below:

 

Message

It is yellow in color. Other than that, I do not know.

Edited April 1 by allanyed

[Chuck Seiler]

'It's yellow and color and comes in a box.  Any other questions?'

[Chuck Seiler]

18 hours ago, tom q vaxy said:

in my naivete, i was falling to the trend of artisanal woods.

 

for the most part, i'll probably use basswood and render some exotic incantation as i work with it.

 

it will make me feel special, anyway.

For what it's worth, I would never use basswood for anything but filler.  When I was working on the NRG planking half hull, I had alot of problems with the basswood planking.  I switched to yellow cedar and was much happier.  It is relatively inexpensive and soft like basswood, but slightly harder.  I find it works better than BW and finishes VERY nicely.

[tom q vaxy]

5 hours ago, allanyed said:

I contacted Model Expo and asked what kind of wood this is. Caveat emptor       

  I wrote:

 

Is this boxwood buxus sempervirens (English boxwood) or calycophyllum multiflorum (Castello)? If not, can you please let me know what species it is? Thank you kindly for your help.

 

Their reply is below:

 

Message

It is yellow in color. Other than that, I do not know.

we all want "honesty in advertising"

[tom q vaxy]

3 hours ago, Chuck Seiler said:

For what it's worth, I would never use basswood for anything but filler.  . . . 

would sitka spruce be okay for a paint finish?

 

National Balsa is having a (approximately) 30% off sale - Sitka Spruce Sticks – National Balsa

[Chuck Seiler]

I am not that familiar with it.  I am sure somebody here has some experience with it.  What ship are you working on?

[Jaager]

@tom q vaxy  Do you have a power saw?  If so, why not use Pine?

2x4's are less expensive.  Home improvement and builder's supplies outlets have 1.5x3.5 studs (2x4)  and 0.75x3.5 (1x4) furring strips.

 

At Home Depot it could be Pine or Spruce or Fir  - go for Pine, no sap,  minimum knots

 

Pine does not roll, crush, or tear like Balsa

[Roger Pellett]

I have been an amateur woodworker for over 60 years.  I have built farm building, gunstocks, several boats and about a dozen scratch built models with their glass cases. I love buying and cutting into a fresh piece of lumber.  On the other hand it is sad to see novice model builders attempting to assemble kits from inappropriate wood species promoted as "deluxe materials; the above "Boxwood Deal" being a prime example.  Model Expo should be embarrassed enough to just refund the buyer's money.  Pay to send it back?  Nuts!

 

Some thoughts about buying wood:

Basswood- Provided in kits, often considered substandard.  I wonder if basswood is actually what"s supplied as there are basswood look alikes that are softer and perhaps cheaper.  Cottonwood, and "popular."  There are two types of poplar. That found in the Southern Midwest is a great model building wood.  It is cut from the "Tulip Poplar" tree.  These get to be very large producing a wood great for carving hulls.  The other poplar is cut fom the Aspen tree, a fast growing tree that often takes over clear cut areas.  Trees usually do not become large.  Wood is quite soft, almost white, and when cut from small trees grain structure can be poor.  Here in Minnesota this type of poplar, locally called "popple" grows like aq weed. A plank of real basswood in my lumber pile actually looks like a nice modeling wood.

 

Lumberyard Pine- IMHO, real Pine, not Spruce or Fir is an excellent modeling wood.  As Jaager posts above it can commonly be found in American lumberyards.  I do not buy 2"x4"S or for that matter any  of the 2" construction sizes as these can be cut from small immature trees yielding undesirable core grain structure.  I prefer 1" lumber as wide as possible.  This yields nice straight outer grain pieces.

 

Bargin Bin-  Lumberyards will sumetimes receive damaged high grade pieces of lumber.  Lumber is sold in lengths of 2" increments.  So, they can sometimes salvage a damaged board by sawing off a 2ft damaged end end and selling the shortened piece as prime grade.  The 2ft damaged end is sold in the bargin bin.  A 1"x10" piece of pine 2ft long can provide a lot of ship modeling wood at a very reasonable cost.  The wider sizes, 1x10 and 1x12 will often crack at the ends.  The crack is easily removed by the table saw providing a pair of clear, straight grained pieces of pine, ideal for our needs.  

 

Roger

[Dr PR]

Some of the smaller 2xN lumber is cut from "cores" remaining after logs are run through plywood lathes to strip off the outer layers as veneer for plywood. Even though the log can be 3-4 feet diameter (or larger), the resulting core is typically the wide-ringed center heartwood from the young fast growing tree. As Roger says, it isn't suitable wood for carving or modelling.

 

This is especially true of 2x4 wall studs. The plywood veneer sheets are 4'x8' and the "blocks" (logs) are cut to a bit over 8 feet lengths to allow for handling on the ends. The resulting core is about 4 inches diameter, and is sent to a machine to saw/plane it into a 2x4x8' wall stud. The resulting scrap is used for particle board or oriented-strand board. Not much is wasted.

Edited April 5 by Dr PR