Weathered wood

If you have not glued the posts yet, dipping the posts in bath of  black leather die and denatured alcohol produces fantastic results, with grey color to the wood.  This is a quick process and  post dry in a few minutes.  The problem with this is if there is already glue on the wood, the stain won’t take, so they need to prestaines before gluing.

If you have more questions on the process let me know.  I will attach some pictures of the basswood I have done on my layout.  Notice on my icing platform, the unstained wood color for reference.

thanks,

Mike

What is the leather dye to alcohol ratio? Would rit dye work for the color? Think the wife has some of that stuff.  How long is soak time for the different shades? Really like the deeper color. The posts are already glued, but wont be a big issue for me as this is up on a shelf layout, and wont see the base of the posts.

You can mix most anything with alcohol for various color effects. My preference is artists ink, which are available in many colors. No fixed ratio. Variety is the key. For weathering, you want fairly weak colors and multiple applications.

Not sure about the die brand, but  I would think the ritz die would work.  Not very scientific, but a couple of tablespoons to the size dish I show below is where I would start.  Most of my alcohol has evaporated in my photo, but I usually I have it 3/4” filled. For them to be dark, they will need to soak for a while.

A word of caution, don’t use this method on sheets of wood, as I found they would warp quite a bit.

Another option is stain.  For my railroad crossings I would use a very dark stain (using basswood) wiping it off immediately after application, producing the results below.

MINWAX stain is all I ever use for staining any wood projects.  There are a number of sites you can Google on how to make realistic telephone poles.  They show how to distress and stain the wood.  Just use the same techniques for your posts.

I've used Lamp Black and water for both modeling and real world applications. Lamp Black is a powdered soot product used for dying mortar. It does require a matte sealer, as it does tend to rub off. The first photo is a mine car I restored recently, and the second photo is a wood bridge I made for my shelf layout.