Old & New Wood Effects

Wood fresh and aged

Planks grow old sooner than anyone would expect. New timber is warm, yellowish to honey colored, but after a few seasons outdoors it loses its color and what remains is a faded gray with a brown cast. The eight paints in this set contain both, so the same palette can build a crate knocked together recently as well as a fence that has stood by the road for twenty years.

The range of shades: a wood tone and a golden brown for the base of a fresh surface, a light brown for the middle stage, ivory for lightening the growth rings, a pair of gray-sand tones for grayed surfaces, a concrete gray for stone and mortar and a dark gray for the seams and the cracks.

A procedure that has proved itself: lay the warm base, and once it is dry go over the surface with a dark wash and wipe it off along the grain. A dry brush with a lighter tone then brings out the edges and the raised fibers. The gray-sand shades are used the other way round: they are laid over the finished wood in thin coats so that the warm base still shows through underneath.

Where it will find use: ship decks, wagon beds, ammunition crates, fences and gates, telegraph poles, bases and diorama groundwork. The concrete gray suits the surrounding walls and pavements as well, so the set covers a whole scene, not just one element.

One thing remains to be recalled: the difference between new and old wood is not made only by the shade, but above all by the contrast between the fibers and the smooth surface. The older the surface, the sharper you should make this grain.