weathering wood structures

[Anonymous]

Hi,
I am moving over from plastic structures over to ho scale laser cut kits. I especially like the quality and value for the money with bar mills.
Can someone point me to a website or article on how to weather these kits? A person told me about using inks and denatured alcohol mixes but i am not that familiar with how to apply them.
thanks for the help

[Anonymous]

India ink is available in brown as well as black and even a few more bright colors. Intended for calligraphy it makes a wonderful weathering medium. Get some Ethyl (not Isopropyl) rubbing alcohol from one of the drug store chains and get some bottles with caps that can be tightened down so it does not evaporate. Divide the Ethyl in half and then add about half a bottle of ink and shake it up. The mixture should appear quite dilute and somewhat transparent. Try dipping in a 1/2 inch artists brush and washing it onto some scraps of the wood you are working with. The alcohol will not warp the wood and when it evaporates it leaves behind the much diluted ink. The solution will collect in the cracks and crevices as well as the grain of the wood highlighting it very nicely. You can build up the darkness by applying repetitive coats as suits you. One terrific thing about this wash is that it works equally well on plastic. This is worth a try. I was very pleased with my results on my HO stuff. You can use a brush,. or an airbrush if you like. I liked the brush best as I could put it exactly where I wanted it and you can go to smaller or larger brushes depending on your project. I think that it would work extremely well on O scale people's clothing to highlight the wrinkles and such, just be sure to use one of those 000 brushes. You can probably use it on facial features like eyebrows and mustaches and hair to great effect. The india ink when dry is waterproof and the brushes clean up in water.
Good luck, let us know how it works out.

blabree11

[Anonymous]

can you use denatured alcohol instead of ethyl alcohol?
Thanks
Mike