Hi guys

Some of you might remember my guard tower project, from my "wall tutorial" topic, somewhere in this section. For those not familiar with it, here's a picture showing the tower:



I want to add a wooden floor to that the upper part and I'm not sure what to use. The first thing that popped into my head was balsa wood. It's light, easy to use, easy to work with and looks pretty good imitating wood. Almost ideal. But there's one thing that bothers me. I want to make a mold based on this tower (actually two molds, one for the lower part and one for the upper piece) and I'm not sure if the floor cast in dental plaster (that's what I'm going to use for casting) will look like wood. Basicily I'm wondering if balsa wood has a good "grainy" texture. I've tried brushing it with a brush to try make it look more like realictic wood, but I'm not sure if this is a good idea. Another option is to use thin sheets of plastic, cut it to strips and than use a dental tool to scribe the characteristic wood texture. I've never done that before, so I'm not sure how it is going to look.

So if you understand what I'm talking about and have any ideas on what to use, I would be more than grateful if you could post your suggestions here. Also if you have any pictures of finished dioramas that use a lot of wood elements and know techniques to achieve realistic wood texture, that is easy to copy using molds, feel free to post. Thanks in advance for any help,

cheers,
dsc.

EDIT: ups... forgot about the photo. hopefully you can now see it.

For what it is worth, I rarely use actual wood in any of my projects. I prefer textured styrene strip, especially if you are going to be casting!

I understand what you are asking but it is my personal preference to USE wood to imitate wood there are a number of tricks to get the grain to come out if you want more. I would try to do your design by incorperating actual wood into it if you can. If you need a hand let me know and we will see what we can come up with. I wouldn't worry about, and would not incorperate the wood floor in the mold. I would use wood strips, here in the states I use wooden coffee stir sticks for this. Bass wood or balsa wood are also good choices. I didn't see your photo I don't know the scale you are working in. It may be more work but the end results of using real wood for wood items always look better to me than using other materials. That is only my opinion.

Sticky: do you have some photos showing your work, were you use those strips?? You make them yourself or maybe buy them??

Paul: I'm leaning more towards balsa wood. I've never used anything else and I think it looks pretty cool. I'm just worried it won't look realistic when cast in dental plaster. The reason why I'm casting is that I want to sell copies of my tower, I'm not sure if there'll be anyone interested, but it might come in handy for my future projects. I've came up with a pretty easy technique of adding more texture to balsa wood. You just have to use a hard bristle brush (similar to those used for cleaning carpets or bath tubs) and gently use it on the surface of the balsa sheet. If done correctly it gives a cool looking texture and creates small cracks which look realistic (plus it's easier to use a wash on such surface). I don't have my digital camera with me, so I can't take any pictures, but if you are interesed how it looks PM me or reply to this topic and I will post something as soon as I get my camera back..

cheers,
dsc.

PS. And one more thing the tower is aprox. 1:72 scale (the model on top is 2,5cm high)

Here are some pics Tom. All the wood is Styrene.

Thanks John for your pictures! How do you add texture to those strips?? Or is it only painted to imitate wood??

cheers,
dsc.

Texture is a combination of both surface treatment, and paint.

Depending on the wood, its "finish" and where it will be, depends on how I treat it.

The oars in the boat got a very light sanding, most of the wood grain is paint.

The boat duck boards are beat up, so they got lots of sanding, and most of the texture is in the surface.

The boards in the hull are about 1/2 way inbetween both.

HTH

John

Tom I build wagons in 1/48 scale for my layout and have used Plastic and wood to get the effects- A razor saw placed crossways and run down the length with he grain will bring up the timber and yes balsa, or Bass wood ( you can get scale sizes from Railway shop-Caboose hobbies in americais excellent for mail order) I have just painted a professional model cast in Hydrocal which is a hard fineplaster like dental plaster and you just use thin acrylic washes of brown and ochres to get effects- post me a private message and I will try to take a picture of the shed I just painted
Ian

I'm impressed with your tower ! Is that for 1/35 or rather for warhammer figures ?
For wood, I either use balsa, or simple plasticard. To give the plasticard a wood structure, I first "brush" it with a steel brush, then cut planks in the same direction. If you want to make it real nice, cut individual planks and glue them together again on another piece of plasticard.

Thanks for the kind words General!
Lately I've seen some pretty amazing stuff made from plasticard, but I'm still leanning a bit more towards balsa. I don't know why, I guess it has to do something with it being more natural.
Anyway I promised to show you how my "brushing" technique looks and here it is:



It's simple, fast and looks pretty cool. If you need more info on it, I'll be more than happy to help you.

cheers,
dsc.

edit: I forgot to answer your question General, this tower is for wargaming purposes, it's a bit smaller than 1/35, so it would need some modifications for such usage.