I have long promised to share my experiments with coating the wood with oil.
I have tried 3 types of oils: linseed, teak and tung. And now I will tell you about my conclusions, what I like and what I will cover the model with.
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And let's start with the one I didn't like the least.
And this is
Linseed oil. Its advantages are that it is affordable and cheap, easy to apply, doesn't dry for a long time, but it stinks really badly after a while, even away from the model. For me it became a very big problem. Other oils also had a little smell, but only if you got very close, and linseed smelled even 2 meters from the model and it was very irritating! And under this oil the wood gets very dark. If someone needs this effect, then this is for you.
The second oil I had hopes for, but it also didn't live up to expectations is
Teak oil. There are no advantages for me at all. It is not easy to find, it is expensive, dries for a long time (although they promise that it will dry quickly), it must be diluted with solvents otherwise it is too thick to apply and most importantly, it is very shiny! This is not always good for a model. Or rather, it is often bad. If you do it for a museum look and cover it with bitumen varnish, this oil will do, but it is very difficult to apply and it is very difficult to achieve a good surface with it. Many layers need to be applied correctly, in a timely manner and with a special technique, which makes it at least inconvenient. I have seen good results with it, but I did not get such results, so it is not for me. The only thing I could more or less make with it was a stand for the model, I will show it later.
And my choice fell, as you guessed, on
Tung oil. I have not yet decided whether I will cover it with bitumen varnish on top for the effect of antiquity, but even without this, I liked the coating under this oil the most. It does not have a shine (but on condition of one layer, and with two or more - a shine appears). And since it needs to be covered once (and not several times like others), then the time is spent on everything less. Yes, it also needs to be diluted with solvent 2:1 like teak, but I take solvent for artistic paints, which is odorless and this is not a problem. And although it dries for a long time (it is better to wait a month), any glue sticks to it perfectly. Nothing sticks to teak at all, to linen with difficulty. And this is very important for me, because after applying it I need to glue the part on top. This is all because it does not create a film on the surface like teak oil and, accordingly, reveals the texture of the wood more. On teak oil, the imitation of nailing is almost invisible, but on tung oil, any dents and cuts are clearly visible (which, of course, is sometimes not good if there are flaws in processing, but still). Well, another plus is that tung oil has a violet filter, and the wood under it does not darken, as under linseed. In a word, if you asked me what to choose, my answer is unequivocal - Tung!
Well, now to the experiments, or rather their results.
The photo below shows how much the wood darkened under
linseed oil in a few months. (top - immediately after coating, bottom right and center - after several months, maybe six months, and bottom left - on top of the bitumen coating, it can be ignored in the comparison).
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The next photo below is a coating of
teak oil. On the right is just oil, on the left is a coating of bitumen. As you can see, under the oil the imitation of nailing is not visible at all. Only under the bitumen holes appear, and under the oil they are visible only in the area where the oil shines. And it shines strongly. The surface is glossy under the formed film.
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Well, in the photo below -
tung oil coating. On the left - one layer, on the right - two. With the second layer, a slight gloss appears, which increases with each layer. Similarly, the degree of darkening increases. With each layer, the surface darkens a little. One layer diluted with solvent 2:1 will be enough to achieve an excellent surface. The oil very strongly reveals the entire texture of the wood and any imitation of nailing or cuts will be immediately visible.
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The situation is similar with the coating of the daru (sides).
Bottom right - linseed oil, left - under bitumen. Not only has the wood darkened (which is not entirely bad in this case), but the black stripes are glossy and not only under the bitumen, but also under just
linseed oil.
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Below in the photo: to the left of the center is
teak oil, to the left is the same under bitumen. To the right of the center is
tung oil, to the right is the same, but in two layers. As you can see, teak oil is very shiny, and tung oil does not shine at all and the black stripes remain matte.
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So, it's up to you to decide. Maybe for someone what was a minus for me will be a decisive plus and vice versa.
So, I gave you the results, my opinion, and it's up to you to decide)))
By the way, if we compare... In the photo: the top grate was exposed to linseed oil 4 months ago, as well as the step frame and the steps themselves on the lower left grate. But the two lower grates with their frames were exposed to tung oil a month ago. Of course, we'll see what happens to them in another 3 months, but I think they definitely won't darken after linseed oil. (The deck hasn't been exposed to anything yet).
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Speaking of decking... Here's a life hack for making fake nails.
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To avoid drawing lines, you can cut the tape into strips and imitate nailing on the sides with a regular gel pen.
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Only first you need to carefully rub the ball on very fine sandpaper (1000-1500 grain). Until it falls out. And after that you will have a sharp cylindrical tip, which can be used to press out such round dents. The technique is simple... we press with rotational movements and try on the testers, we remember the degree of force of this pressure. With practice, you get quite repeatable circles, you just need to practice. You can use any rotary tool, but at very slow speeds. And apply even less force, so as not to drill through the skin. When I get to the decks, I will definitely show you how it will look under tung oil. Good luck to everyone))