Texture: Another Attempt At Replicating Wood With Paper

[finescalerr]

Paul, I checked out the synthetic paper and its potential uses. It won't work for what I'm after: something I can use with an inkjet photo printer. They say the material is inompatible with inkjet or laser printers. It might be a very stable material for sub-walls. Apparently it takes paint well. But so do traditional smooth finish papers so I see no real advantage there. Besides, styrene is readily available and is easier to glue.

The whole point behind this little exercise is, in a sense, to build up a 3-D photograph. If that ends up neither looking as it should nor saving modeling time then I would happily return to wood and plastic. (I love wood.)

Thanks again for the links and the information. This forum has been an outstanding resource for ever better materials.

Russ

[RoughboyModelworks]

Well I'm sorry the synthetic paper won't work for you, but it could prove useful in another application, you never know. It prints beautifully but I wasn't aware that it was incompatible with inkjet and laser printers.

Now what you need to do is get yourself down to Pearl Paint and check out their paper stock. As I recall from their Manhattan store, it's a paper junkie's dream. I'd be very surprised if you didn't find something that would suit your needs to a T.

Paul

[John McGuyer]

!cnU
You are making tremendous progress in this medium. I hope you stick with it as it will soon be a method I think we will all be using thanks to your leadership.

John

[Frederic Testard]

Russ, I'm just discovering the 'paper truck' you posted on Nov. 8th. It's impressive to read that tires and cabins were made out of paper. Do you know where one can find more information about the techniques involved?

[finescalerr]

Frederic, if your German and Polish are as good as your English, you may translate the pages on this site for me! I found the truck you "discovered" and a few other extraordinary models here: http://kartonbau.de. Most of the better models are in the "Vehicles" section. I have found the "Architecture" section extremely disappointing. Some airplanes and ships are good. Most build their models from printed kits but a few are scratchbuilt. The overall quality of the detail and finish you will find on the site is very inconsistent.

In particular, also check out these two models: http://kartonbau.de/wbb2/thread.php?threadid=17165 and http://kartonbau.de/wbb2/thread.php?threadid=20696.

Although I have looked at length, I have not found another site even half as good.

Russ

[Frederic Testard]

Thanks for the answer, Russ.
Unfortunately, neither my German nor my Polish are nearly as good as my English. As long as you're happy with watching models, it's ok but explanations are hard to understand (a bit easier in German, yet).
I agree with you on the great differences of quality between the models displayed on this site.
The two threads you put in evidence are indeed very impressive. I wouldn't have believed paper or cardboard models could be this detailed and realistic.
Again, thanks for sharing the link to this place.

[RoughboyModelworks]

Russ:

I can't believe those two models are made entirely from card stock... absolutely amazing work. The fellow making the locomotive even cut all the hex head bolt heads from paper... and I thought some of us were nuts...  The gentleman who is building the tank says that each link in the tank track is made from 25 separate pieces of card stock...  It looks like all the pieces are plotted out first then laser cut... is that your understanding?

Thanks for posting the links...

Paul

[finescalerr]

Frederic, you are most welcome. My German vocabulary is very weak so I get only a general sense of what the guys are saying. But the photos really tell the story. Building such amazing models from paper seems impossible yet the proof that an expert can equal or even surpass what we can do with styrene just leaves me in awe.

I have noticed the best models are painted, not printed. And the builders saturate some parts with cyanacrylate (SuperGlue) to give them rigidity and resistance to tears or fraying. Once they have done that they can file, sand, or use a Dremel to shape or drill the (often laminated) parts. That is how they form locomotive drivers.

Paul, with few exceptions the models are entirely paper. The locomotive has some wire and balsa. The cab floor and roofing is stained balsa because nobody can make paper look as convincing as stained wood. The cargo truck's bed and side boards are balsa; the builder deviated from the kit's paper parts. Neither model has any plastic and no machined metal or castings of any kind.

I think the guy building the tank is fairly young -- late twenties or early thirties. He designed the model in CAD and had the parts laser cut, just as you surmise. Not all tread links on various models consist of 25 pieces but all do consist of at least a few and each link must be assembled individually. Building up N-B-Ws from cut and punched paper is a common practice although some guys buy laser cut pieces and bypass the individually cut nuts.

Russ

[DaKra]

I tried a few ideas for HO scale paper clapboards over the weekend.  A scratch brush can add texture which suggests raised grain and/or chipping paint.  Scratch for texture, paint, then scratch again to chip away some paint. This is dark brown, then sand colored craft paint over laser engraved cardstock.  


 I used this tool from MM.  

http://www.micromark.com/Scratch-Brush,8058.html

I found it useless on wood and plastic because its too coarse.  There are wire wheels in a variety of sizes and gauges which should work just as well.  

Dave

[finescalerr]

If you look closely at the above photo, you'll see the brush dislodged some paper fibers to create an almost fuzzy texture. That and what might also be the laser engraving, combine to yield what seems to my eye an overstated appearance. In some spots it almost looks like the grain has shifted from horizontal to vertical. Why am I sensitive to that? Because I've experimented in the same way and was unhappy with the results.

If you compare the paper boards in Dave's photo with those of a 1:1 structure the immediate difference is that the full size board texture is almost smooth, especially if you were to view it from 87.1 feet away. So if you brush the paper at all, it must be lightly, with only one or two passes in the same direction. I pretty much gave up on that technique because it was either too destructive or too subtle.

Art papers come in a variety of textures. Some look more like wood than others. If you choose a paper for its texture and lightly scribe it with a dull needle (a somewhat slow process since you must do each board by hand) you can achieve results virtually indistinguishable from wood with no raised fibers.

Alternatively you can simply leave the paper texture alone, or almost alone, and use paints and stains to get the results you want. A combination of both is what I decided comes closest to replicating reality. The accompanying photo isn't what I'd consider a superb result (it's only better than average) but I hope it illustrates differences in textures.

I'm really glad Dave took the initiative to experiment with paper. I look forward to his, and other, future attempts to push the envelope.

Russ

[DaKra]

Fair enough, Russ.   Another experiment, slightly different method.  I washed brown oil over tan acrylic, scratched before and after.   Its meant to show weathered bare wood.    HO scale Tichy window.   

   


Dave

[chester]

Both excellent attempts. The first might be improved just by using a 600 grit sand paper to remove the fuzzies and smooth it out. Just a little too uniform too, different color chalks maybe?
I like the second one better but again just a bit too uniform.

[finescalerr]

I think you should make your own windows! (Yeah, I already know you will. And they'll blow away Tichy's.).

The second attempt is better but still seems, to my eye, a little overstated even though it is HO scale. Maybe in that size you might want to give in to understatement: Try some un-textured boards and suggest the weathering with paints, stains, powders, or whatever. In HO, I've found you almost have to do that because the overall size is so small.

Russ

[Malachi Constant]

I think I disagree with Russ on this one ... that is an incredibly HUGE, gigantic, extreme close-up of Dave's siding and it still looks "good" (to my ignorant self) ... I suspect that in "normal" shots showing a full structure, or even some sort of "normal" close-up showing some small details along a structure, that this level of statement or overstatement of the desired detail will show well. 

I think "understatement" of the grain detail, etc in HO means it would tend to disappear altogether ... and, to my eye, and keeping in mind the extreme close-up, I think you've got a degree of subtle overstatement that works well.  Of course, it would help if your photo were actually in focus! 

PS -- Assessing these effects really draws heavily on personal preference, opinion, etc ... so just toss this in as my worthwhile or worthless opinion ... whatever! 

Cheers,
Dallas

[DaKra]

Agree with the above. 

Chester, I was studying some weathered clapboard while I was out walking the dog last night, and you are right about the color variations.  There are more contrasts in the actual wood.  A single plank can go from dark to light with a hard edge beween the shades.  I'll try to replicate that with the next trials.

On the exaggerated effect, again, agreed.  The back story to these experiments is they are R&D for a structure kit I currently have in design phase.   This time, I'm going to roll with some of the craftsman kit trends to see what happens with my bottom line.   Subtle doesn't sell.  In HO scale, subtle is invisible to the majority of customers.   Also the instructions must include painting instructions that are simple to follow.  No more than three steps to achieve the effect, and no exotic tools or paints.   

So within those specifications, this is what I've come up with.  At normal viewing range, the effects are much less extreme and since the subject matter is appropriate for heavy weathering and dilapidation, the overall effect doesn't offend my sense of realism.  Still a way to go, but I'm happy with where its going.

Dave