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Plastic wood deck effect


paul1234

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32 minutes ago, paul1234 said:

Hi everyone

 

Does anyone have any tips for painting plastic wooden decks, making them look realistic ?

 

Thank you again 

 

There are different ways to do it, and frankly not everyone likes all end results although you'll seldom see comments in the negative.

 

If you like this one though, below is how it was done:

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For the planked deck I selected a total of 4 colours which are fairly similar, but they very gently break up the uniformity of the appearance without (I hope) being clearly over-done.

1) The whole planked deck was painted in ACGW10 Doped Linen

2) Approximately 1/3 of the planks were brush painted in ACRA01 Giallo Mimetico 1

3) Approximately 1/3 of what planks were left in ACGW10 after step 2 were brush painted in IJN09: IJN Deck Tan

4) Approximately 1/3 of what planks were left in ACGW10 after step 3 were brush painted in ARG03 Afrika Corps Tan Yellow

5) Once all that was thoroughly cured, I brushed on a coat of Windsor & Newton artist's acrylic clear gloss varnish

6) Once the step 5 varnish was thoroughly dried, I made a thin, dark brownish/greyish wash using turpentine and Windsor & Newton artist's oil paints and brushed that on to darken the caulking between the planks.

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Hi Jamie

 

Thank you for the tips, at first when I saw the picture I thought it was a verneer deck it is that convincing.

 

I take it between the shades of colour it was blended in ? did you dry brush it over base coat.

 

It does look convincing and thanks again

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9 minutes ago, paul1234 said:

Hi Jamie

 

Thank you for the tips, at first when I saw the picture I thought it was a verneer deck it is that convincing.

 

I take it between the shades of colour it was blended in ? did you dry brush it over base coat.

 

It does look convincing and thanks again

Hi,

 

No there's no dry brushing or blending - the planks are just plain painted. I think an important point about doing it this particular way is to choose a range of colours (4 in my example) which are fairly closely spaced. There is a noticeable contrast between my darkest and lightest, but the two in between were chosen to be subtle steps towards the darkest. Hence, it doesn't slap the viewer in the face, at least I hope! It's a case of "less is more". The only arty-farty thing was step 6 above to run a dark wash in between the planks to highlight (or should that be lowlight??) the caulking between the planks. They don't look right reflecting the base colours out at certain viewing angles - that allows the caulking to appear lighter than the horizontal surface if it catches the light wrong.

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Please excuse my questions 

 

So as I understand after the base coat you broke it up into sections and used the different tones for each.

 

In my head I see you would take a line of blanks from the front to the back of the section of deck, paint it with one shade and than the next line of planks with another shade, or would you randomly move between shades.

 

Sorry for my ignorance just broken into the hobby  

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Ask away! Everyone likes to feel useful once in a while 😂

 

After the base coat I tried to be as random as possible in placement of each subsequent and slightly darker tone. The idea is to disperse the different tones around the deck in as non-uniform a way as possible.

 

It's quite hard to deliberately be random and it's quite natural to want to structure it in to some sort of order but it wont look like natural timbers if you succumb to that temptation.

 

My approximate proportions above was merely an effort on my part not to get too carried away with darkening and end up excessively darkening the average tone of whatever I ended up with too much because ultimately is was a fairly light teak wood which was used in real life. If I went nuts and painted, say, half the total number of planks with the darkest colour then the deck would have ended up looking like a dark laminate floor in a house.

 

P.S. you'll find it a benefit investing in a "spotter" brush from an art shop. Hobbycraft etc carries them if you need. You'll get great ones from the likes of ABC Brushes. A spotter brush is a tiny little pointy thing utterly useless for large areas, but ideal for picking out individual planks on a wooden deck!

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It depends a bit on the period you're modelling. One of my bugbears is wooden sailing ships, especially of the Nelson era, with varied shades of brown decks with highly visible woodgrain. On a ship where the deck planks are regularly "holystoned" (ie sanded smooth) by the crew, being given things to do by the First Lieutenant, the basic colour of the deck is an overall matt off-white, linen or beige at worst. The planks also fit well, and the "panel gaps" filled with pitch/shredded canvas caulking are very fine dark lines, not trenches... Something that has to provide the best possible grip (sometimes literally a matter of life and death) for hundreds of people running around in bare feet, and in a pre-antibiotic world where an embedded septic splinter could kill you, or at least condemn you to begging legless on the street for the rest of your life, is very well looked after...

 

I don't know whether the steel navy spent as much time keeping their decks pristine (the desire of First Lieutenants to keep the men busy probably didn't go away, but there was so much more to paint and polish. And shoes...), but anything with a disciplined crew prior to 1900 or so should look pretty well-kept...

 

best,

M.

EDIT: Sorry... didn't see that this is posted in "Modern". The sentiment stands, but the post maybe less relevant... 😜

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On ‎18‎/‎04‎/‎2019 at 20:03, cmatthewbacon said:

I don't know whether the steel navy spent as much time keeping their decks pristine (the desire of First Lieutenants to keep the men busy probably didn't go away, but there was so much more to paint and polish. And shoes...), but anything with a disciplined crew prior to 1900 or so should look pretty well-kept...

Even modern steel decks have wooden spurnwaters that are scotchbrited regularly to keep them looking pristine.  How QE manages with only about a dozen sailors assigned to work parts of ship I have no idea.

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On 18/04/2019 at 20:55, Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies said:

Ask away! Everyone likes to feel useful once in a while 😂

 

After the base coat I tried to be as random as possible in placement of each subsequent and slightly darker tone. The idea is to disperse the different tones around the deck in as non-uniform a way as possible.

 

It's quite hard to deliberately be random and it's quite natural to want to structure it in to some sort of order but it wont look like natural timbers if you succumb to that temptation.

 

My approximate proportions above was merely an effort on my part not to get too carried away with darkening and end up excessively darkening the average tone of whatever I ended up with too much because ultimately is was a fairly light teak wood which was used in real life. If I went nuts and painted, say, half the total number of planks with the darkest colour then the deck would have ended up looking like a dark laminate floor in a house.

 

P.S. you'll find it a benefit investing in a "spotter" brush from an art shop. Hobbycraft etc carries them if you need. You'll get great ones from the likes of ABC Brushes. A spotter brush is a tiny little pointy thing utterly useless for large areas, but ideal for picking out individual planks on a wooden deck!

Thank you once again Jamie for your help

i guess the only way is practice with your tips 

thank you 

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23 hours ago, Chewbacca said:

Even modern steel decks have wooden spurnwaters that are scotchbrited regularly to keep them looking pristine.  How QE manages with only about a dozen sailors assigned to work parts of ship I have no idea.

Thank you Chewbacca

Both you and Jamie have been a help 

 

thank you 

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