Need advice regarding Floquil stains

[on30francisco]

You can use brown and black leather dye diluted with alcohol. By varying the amount of black dye you mix with the brown you can come up with a wide range of colors. You can also weather wood using black leather dye or india ink. Add a few drops to about three ounces of alcohol. The best part of using leather dye or india ink is the price - very cheap compared to Flo-stains.

[Anonymous]

Penthur:

Maple, Walnut and Driftwood are pretty standard across manufacturers lines of stain. I wouldn't worry too much about exact matching.

To my eye maple is ligher and warmer, walnut darker and a bit less warm, driftwood a bleached weathered look. (You see its difficult to describe color differences with words [sigh] )

Whatever method or product line you choose I urge you to do some tests on materials like the ones in the kit.

This is really more a matter of results you are satisfied with rather than "following the directions".

Good Luck

Randy

[Fergmiester]

From what I've seen all manufacturers offer a wide range of colours. Alot are similiar if not identical names have been changed to protect the copyrighted. Your best bet is to pick up colour charts and check out old buildings and houses to look for something that appeals to you.

[vsmith]

I found out about the discontiuence of Floquil stains when I ran out of the last bottle I had, went to my LHS and found out were out and never to come back, I was told to get stains at the hardware store, ya know the small CANS?, well, gee, Thanks. I liked Floquil because I could keep the bottles on my desktop, cans are a major hastle, I suggest if you cant find bottles, start collecting baby food jars or condiment jars, the kind that still have screw on lids, clean those fill them and then keep those on your work bench.

[Anonymous]

Wow, thanks for the quick replies, I really appreicate the help!

I have never seen the actual colors of Floquil stains before, so I'm not sure how to match them up with Olympic or Minwax colors. The M.C. Bodine's kit was pretty specific about what colors to use: Floquil stain Maple, Driftwood and Walnut.

Anybody know if Olympic or Minwax have fairly close color matches?

Anybody know how to make these specific Floquil stain colors myself? I was thinking of thinning-down regular Floquil paint colors ... I'm not sure which regular colors are matches for Maple, Driftwood and Walnut stains.

Thanks again,
Penthur

[Anonymous]

Penthur:

Fergie beat me to it in suggesting Minwax stains, which would be my choice in ready to use stains.

Picking the appropriate color is largely a matter of YOUR PREFERENCE. If it looks right to you it is right. Your local builders supply will have color cards you can have as a reference. Remember that what you see on the chip will look considerably darker on an entire structure.

I suggest you thin the ready made product 3 or 4 parts thinner to one part color to avoid having too dark an initial result. You can always add applications but it is very difficult to subtract.

You can also make your own stains from artist tube color and either alcohol or turpentine used as thinner.

This is one area of modeling where individual preference is entirely acceptable. Virtually all experienced modelers have their own way of achieving the results they prefer.

Good Luck and have fun

Randy

[Fergmiester]

Minwax is a product I use and comes in a variety of sizes including 3 oz bottles. Here is a link that may help you locate the nearest distributer.

http://www.minwax.com/

and by the way [#welcome]

Hope your here for the long haul

[Anonymous]

[#welcome] to the forum!

Don't know how close Olympic is to Floquil as I haven't use Floquil stains. I use Olympic stains that I get from my local DIY. They carry all the colors you mentioned above plus some.

[Anonymous]

I recently started out in the hobby, and was hoping for some advice please.

I picked up Master Creations "Bodine's General Store" kit, and the directions (construction manual) stated to use "Floquil Maple, Driftwood and Walnut Stains" to pre-weather/stain the walls. Directions also suggested alternate stains ... but they were Floquil's also .... Cherry, Mahogany, Rosewood, etc.

I noticed that Testors has discontinued the Floquil stains, and was hoping somebody could help me:

1) Anybody know of any stores that still carry the Floquil stains?

2) Could somebody please suggest how I could create my own versions of the old Floquil stains? I'm interested in any colors (especailly maple, driftwood, walnut and mahogany).

3) Anybody know of a good alternative manufacturer (instead of Floquil)?

Thanks in advance,
Penthur