Wall

[finescalerr]

It's clapboard. How does it look? -- Russ

[gnichols]

As it should, clapped out.  Gary

[W C Greene]

Well, we're waiting...how did you do it? It does look like delapidated clapboard, not as nasty as my old aunt's house, but nice.
                              Woodie

[Mobilgas]

Russ,    Ill take a wild guess........is the wall paper    Craig H

[JohnP]

I fear this is some type of aptitude test, or a psychiatric evaluation. Regardless, I downloaded it and blew it up 10X. I stared at it for a long while. Other than the chipped patterns, I found it has a smell like weathered clapboards. I see women crawling around in it. They need to be freed. So do I...

What scale is it? The irregularity is good, the weathering looks a little blotchy, the chipping is good.

Clapboard note: old New England houses had tighter spaced clapboards toward the bottom where the snow would pile up. Usually it is found on the better houses from wealthy owners. And the closer the spacing in general reflected the wealth of the owner. Sometimes the fine work was applied only to the front of the dwelling.

John

[finescalerr]

Craig, you were peeking.

The reason I posted the photo is to get some input about the general appearance. I tried a brainlessly simple weathering technique and slapped the thing together in about fifteen minutes. I made no attempt to put the peeling paint in the "right" places; the choice of boards was totally random from a pile I had cut although most boards I would use not have peeling paint or cracks. There is wood grain but it's too subtle to see with the kind of lighting I used and without magnification. The scale is 1:48.

Comments?

Russ

[marc_reusser]

Well, much better than before...the actual chips look good.....but something in the pattern/layout is still bugging me.....I can't put my finger on it. Maybe just lack of context within a scene. I think I will need a personal showing.

I unfortunately have to agree with John,...the blotchy weathering is not helping it.


Marc

[finescalerr]

Don't worry about the chipped paint layout at this point. As I said, there was no effort to place the chipped boards properly; it was strictly random and I had too many in the pile of boards I used.

The blotchy issue bothers me, too. Part of it might be some pastel chalk I dabbed on but some might be due to the way I weathered the boards. To get a better grasp of that, are the blotches objectionable because they appear to run across several boards or is the weathering on each individual board too blotchy? A third problem might be the relative contrast -- the blotches are too dark. If you guys can identify the most offensive aspects I may be able to correct them.

When I read your replies I'll explain what motivated this quickie experiment.

Russ

[DaKra]

I looked at it a few times and thought something was "off" had to think a while, I think its inconsistency with the weathering, the heavy horizontal chipping/scraping here and there, with much better preserved boards between them doesn't look quite right.    Maybe tone them down some with an overspray of the base color and see how they look.

Also, no visible horizontal grain, or brush marks, leaves it flat looking.   Might help to enhance what's there with an oil wash, which will also put a little shadow/grime build up under the boards.   

[Malachi Constant]

Yeah, I'm not sure either ... might be lack of context like Marc said ...

There's a light/lens flare just above and to the right of the center point that's making the photo look a bit washed out ...

There's a sort of "texture" (blotchiness, bumpiness or something) to the coloring that does look a lot like the surface texture of paper ... or like what you'd get if you brushed pastels, etc onto the surface of bumpy paper.

And, as Dave mentioned, no grain to the wood ... also no joints in the siding, nail heads/holes, etc.

Context photo might help ... doesn't look bad, but doesn't really grab interest either ... maybe the fact that you felt the need to state that it's a section of clapboard is a "tell" (hint) that you've had similar thoughts ...

Cheers,
Dallas

[nalmeida]

It looks "soulless" but as Marc pointed out it might be lacking context.

After the consideration my guess is: It seems to be a photo of a print (a good quality print though), then again I'm probably wrong.

[finescalerr]

Okay, okay! You guys are a tough audience. (Actually, that's exactly what I want.)

Here is another attempt at a wall section using the same weathering approach but toned down. 1:48 scale at high magnification, heavily side-lighted to bring out the grain detail. That tended to grossly overstate the texture of the peeling paint near the bottom. I added nail holes for your viewing enjoyment. The bowed effect at the top and top left and right is from using a zoom lens.

I don't think the approach can improve much beyond this attempt so let me know whether it's a hit, foul ball, or a miss -- i.e., what you either like or don't like and why -- and please don't gripe about the peeling paint at the bottom since it doesn't look like that in person and easily could be fixed. This is a quick and dirty method that anyone can duplicate and I want to know whether it's worth using.

Russ

[JohnP]

Grain?? We don't need no stinkin' grain.

If most of the paint is still adhered to clapboards, it is doubtful the grain would show. Clapboards are usually tight-grained wood with grain showing only if the paint has been mostly washed away and the wood has been exposed. The chipping in strips is representative of paint falling off along the drip line of the siding and maybe along a few splits in the grain.

It was the blotchy weathering color that was killing the first try. It extended across clapboards like someone threw shovels of damp dirt at the wall. A blending would look better, like on the new wall. Nail holes might be a little much, but they do add interest.

John

PS One of these days I will stop casting and make something to show. When I get brave enough.
PPS Anyone ever read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Yellow_Wallpaper?

[Philip Smith]

Paint / texture looks good to me. The nail pattern and reveal/show needs to be more like this illustration tho... your asking for cupping and splitting as the nails are pulling the wood into the void.

Philip

[finescalerr]

Interesting info on the nail holes. Somebody asked for them so I made the smallest I could with the tools on hand. Glad I included them because now I've learned how to do it right.

Posted by DaKra: "Also, no visible horizontal grain, or brush marks, leaves it flat looking."

See, John? I read every comment. You guys better have a meeting to decide how my stuff should look before I build the next installment!

Still hoping for a consensus before moving ahead.

Russ