SCA-gates-msg

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SCA-gates-msg – 8/14/05

SCA gates and buildings. Techniques to make fake gates and buildings that look like period pieces.

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NOTICE -

This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that I have collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday.

This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's Florilegium. These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org

I have done a limited amount of editing. Messages having to do with separate topics were sometimes split into different files and sometimes extraneous information was removed. For instance, the message IDs were removed to save space and remove clutter.

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Stefan at florilegium.org

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From: christopher gilman <chris at globaleffects.com>

Newsgroups: rec.org.sca

Subject: Re: Seek advice for portable house

Date: 22 Jun 1999 12:05:27 PDT

Organization: Global Effects Inc.

If you use fiberglass and polyester resin or "Bondo" (or any cheaper auto

body filler) laid up on plywood. (you can add white pigment to make it

white or paint it with a flat white paint) This will give you a simulated

daub that will be flexible and light. This added between pine boards that

have been burned with a torch then wire brushed this will simulate an aged

beam. Then clear coat the beam with a brushed on coat of polyester resin to

seal it and give the fake daub a good surface to stick to. With all of these

technique's try them on scraps of materials with a good photo of the real

thing right in front of you. DON'T RELY ON YOUR MEMORY! The biggest mistake

people make in reproducing something, is not having good reference in front

of them as they work.

I've been doing this type of thing for 20 years professionally. If you would

like to see some of the things we have built, My web page is

http://www.globaleffects.com

If you need reference look for a book called, "The English Mediaeval House"

by Margaret Wood, 1994 Studio Editions Ltd. ISBN 1 85891 167 2

Chris Gilman/ Sir Gaston Bonneville de la Croix

From: christopher gilman <chris at globaleffects.com>

Newsgroups: rec.org.sca

Subject: Re: Seek advice for portable house

Date: 22 Jun 1999 18:27:17 PDT

Organization: Global Effects Inc.

william thomas powers wrote:

> <snip>

> >This added between pine boards that

> >have been burned with a torch then wire brushed this will simulate an aged

> >beam.

> <snip>

> >The biggest mistake

> >people make in reproducing something, is not having good reference in front

> >of them as they work.

> <snip>

> Another common mistake is to age something that would have been brand new

> to your personna---that cruck house you built should look brand new and not

> like it was 600 years old

> This shows up in A&S quite often: people artificially age items to make them

> look like a piece in a museum with centuries of use/abuse/neglect when the

> piece *should* look like you just made it; or if it is a heirloom like your

> father or grandfather made it and not like your great-great-great-great-great

> -great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great

> -great-great-grandfather made it; but in a style that would not appear for

> another 600 years after his death...

> wilelm the smith

This is a very good point. However raw oak lumber would have been aged/or sun

dried before it was used. Sometimes they painted the beams with pitch to seal

them. Also the grain in pine is much finer than oak. The wire brush technique

gives the wood the appearance of heavy grain, at about 1/10 the cost of solid oak beams. One must also add some type of aging and artistic touch, because most

people expect the item to look a certain way. If it looks too "New" then it has a tendency to look fake. But as you pointed out this can go too far and I fight this all the time in movies.

C. Gilman

From: powers at cis.ohio-state.edu (william thomas powers)

Newsgroups: rec.org.sca

Subject: Re: Seek advice for portable house

Date: 23 Jun 1999 13:56:05 GMT

Organization: The Ohio State University, Department of Computer and Information Science

>> Another common mistake is to age something that would have been brand new

>> to your personna---that cruck house you built should look brand new and not

>> like it was 600 years old

>This is a very good point. However raw oak lumber would have been aged/or sun

>dried before it was used.

I work a lot with air dried lumber; it doesn't look like the torch/brush has been used on it---even the pieces of a 200 year old barn!

> Sometimes they painted the beams with pitch to seal them.

I am more familiar with the scandanavian technique of stripping conifers and allowing the tree to form a layer of pitch before cutting it down and using it for building.

> Also the grain in pine is much finer than oak. The wire brush technique

>gives the wood the appearance of heavy grain, at about 1/10 the cost of solid

>oak beams.

Well if you are trying to fake oak instead of using pine for pine which was used for buildings in certain areas---though the grain on pine just doesn't look like oak no mater what you do; especially the european oaks.

> One must also add some type of aging and artistic touch, because most

>people expect the item to look a certain way. If it looks to "New" then it has

>a tendency to look fake. But as you pointed out this can go to far and I fight

>this all the time in movies.

Well this is a personal call; I'd rather educate folk than help cement them in their errors. I've always found that real wear and weathering do a sufficient job; of course using recycled wood can jumpstart the aging process.

william the smith [who has] got beech drying in the garage attic, maple and osage orange drying in the basement and dunnage lumber piled where ever there's room.

Subject: Re: faux stone walls - ideas

Date: Wed, 8 Sep 1999 16:00:09 -0700 (PDT)

From: Betty Eyer <betty_eyer at yahoo.com>

To: LadyDaria at aol.com, atlantia at atlantia.sca.org

--- LadyDaria at aol.com wrote:

> I am going to paint some faux stone walls onto

> canvas. Any ideas on how to accomplish this?

> Daria

Many, many moons ago, I worked back stage at the Virginia Museum

Theater, or whatever they call it now. I worked on costumes and props

and even, once, I help "fly" people for Peter Pan. So I have seen the

painting of faux stone done by professionals. Keep in mind that stage

props are meant to be seen from a distance and that subtlety is not

important.

Paint the entire part that is going to be stone a medium dark grey -

the type that comes in cheap floor paint is about the right color.

Then mix a variety of shades of that color with white and black. Get

your self a little moss green, and maybe a washed out blue. Do the

spong thing as described earlier, or you can use a really big brush to

drizzle the colors around haphazardly for a similar effect. Then use

darker shades of the grey using blotting motions with the tip of the

brush to create the shapes of the individual stones and create some

highlights with the moss.

Magdalena

===

Magdalena de Hazebrouck

Subject: Re: faux stone walls - ideas

Date: Wed, 8 Sep 1999 19:36:11 -0400

From: "Gundobad" <gundobad at www.cytechcis.net>

To: <atlantia at atlantia.sca.org>

I'd use a paint designed for textured finishes, and I've had better results

on cloth with acrylics than oils.

Gundo

Subject: more faux stone for walls

Date: Wed, 8 Sep 1999 13:35:28 -0700 (PDT)

From: Karen Larsdatter <karen_larsdatter at yahoo.com>

To: ladydaria at aol.com

CC: atlantia at atlantia.sca.org

Here are some more webpages that might be helpful --

http://www.hgtv.com/shows/DWS/dws-215.html

http://www.painted-house.com/painted-house/hallways/news/SHOW37/FAUXSTON.HTM

http://www.fauxlikeapro.com/wwwboard/messages/684.html

http://www.fauxlikeapro.com/wwwboard/messages/685.html

http://www.fauxlikeapro.com/fauxfaqs2.html

(There is also a faux stone spray on the market; you could use a grid

of masking tape to denote the places where the stones would be mortared

together.)

Karen

Subject: Re: faux stone walls - ideas

Date: Wed, 8 Sep 1999 13:18:51 -0700 (PDT)

From: Karen Larsdatter <karen_larsdatter at yahoo.com>

To: ladydaria at aol.com

CC: atlantia at atlantia.sca.org

I have heard that Dressler Stencils work well for creating faux stone

work for walls and such. Their webpage at

http://www.dresslerstencils.com has information and samples of how

their stencils work out. (Look for the Architectural Elements and

Structures in the Products & Catalog section.)

Another way would be to do the stonework freehand ... I'll look around

and see if I can find good sites for "faux stone."

Karen Larsdatter

Subject: Re: faux stone walls - ideas

Date: Wed, 08 Sep 1999 15:41:33 -0400

From: Logan and/or Arielle <sirlogan at mail.clt.bellsouth.net>

To: atlantia at atlantia.sca.org

LadyDaria at aol.com wrote:

> I am going to pant some faux stone walls onto canvas. Any ideas on how to

> accomplish this?

> Daria

Use paint. 8^)

Seriously, when we tried this, we found that having a picture of a stone wall

(encyclopedia) helped immensely. Keeping in mind the randomness of the sizes

usually fell into three sizes. Think of those sizes in thirds (1/3 2/3 3/3).

We painted the canvas with a watered down white and gray base paint. Let

that dry, then sketched the stones on. The mortar color was the same color

we used to dry brush the highlights on the stones after they dried. The

colors we used were white, gray, black, green. You can also tear up some

sponges to add a textured look to the stones by painting the stones a base

color (gray) then pour a little gray black mix next to some gray white and

some green gray mixes. Dab the sponge into all of the mixes and transfer

that to the stones very lightly and randomly.

Duke Logan

Date: Wed, 08 Sep 1999 19:01:11 -0400

From: rmhowe <magnusm at ncsu.edu>

To: atlantia at atlantia.sca.org

Subject: Taking impressions - Re: faux stone walls

This is more for handmade paper than for canvas, but it's a neat

technique that could be made use of constructively for some purposes.

I saw it done in a documentary a long time ago.

In China they often collect ancient calligraphy off of stone steles.

The process they use is to wet the stone and place a damp sheet of

paper over it. We're talking thick pulpy paper here, not the slick,

sized type. Once it's mounted it may require further sprinkling.

The paper is then beaten into the depressions with the bristles

of a hair brush, rather like a carpenter's bench brush.

_______________________

(_______________________) Bench brush

||||||||||||||||\\

||||||||||||||||\\\

Once the paper has dried on the stone the high areas are inked using

a printer's inking bag, rather like a heavy pad around which some

cloth has been wrapped that has been inked by beating it against

a stone / glass on which ink has been rolled out. It is then bounced

against the stone in many small strokes. Then it's left to dry

and later carefully peeled off.

\|||/

\_/

(___) knot to hold

/ | \ inked cloth bag

/ /|\ \

|_______|

The high areas take the color, the depressed areas don't, and give

a true image of the surface, in this case the calligraphy.

It's kind of like our practice of Brass Rubbings, but much more

advanced and better defined. In the film I saw it reproduced every

flaw in the stone quite dramatically.

I've long had this idea in the back of my mind of reproducing some

stuff this way. It would make for some really interesting artwork.

Sculpture transferred to paper as it were. Colored or not. In a

shadow frame it would be striking with offset lighting.

Mayhap you could use a real stone wall or walkway as the model.

But I don't think I'd use a medium that would soak through the material

though. It better be semi-dry / thick so as not to discolor someone

else's property. Perhaps a water based medium would be best.

I wonder if a little starch would hold the mortar joints in cloth

prior to the inking and last a while afterwards? The paper merely

rearranges it's fibers in this process.

M. Magnus Malleus, Windmaster's Hill, Atlantia, GDH

From: alchem at en.com (James Koch)

Newsgroups: rec.org.sca

Subject: Re: how do you harden styrofoam

Date: 26 Jan 2004 20:55:28 -0800

Real styrofoam, the stuff from which packing material and cups are

made is styrene plastic. Many organic solvents will readily attack

the stuff. Years ago I used to dissolve styrofoam in gasoline to make

poor man's napalm. Acetone is safer. Cut your gate and save all the

trimmings. Dissolve them in a metal bucket or pan with sufficient

acetone to make a syrup. A thin coat of this can be painted on the

gate to form a skin. If spread too thick the solvent may attack the

foam on which it is being applied. I'd experiment a bit.

A more time consuming and expensive method is to buy yards of cheap

thin cloth and cans of that two part epoxee boat patch goo. You cover

the cut styrofoam with the cloth and glue it on with the two part

epoxee. This stuff is best used out of doors and in cold weather.

Indoors it gives off noxious fumes. In warm weather it hardens too

fast. The finished product is extremely tough. I once owned a

styrofoam sailboat which I treated this way. When complete it was

strong enough to use as a canoe in the local rivers.

Jim Koch (Gladius The Alchemist)

Subject: Re: how do you harden styrofoam

Date: Tue, 27 Jan 2004 08:27:18 -0500

From: Patrick Covert <covert at nospam.capital.net>

Newsgroups: rec.org.sca

James Koch <alchem at en.com> wrote:

>Real styrofoam, the stuff from which packing material and cups are

>made is styrene plastic. Many organic solvents will readily attack

>the stuff. Years ago I used to dissolve styrofoam in gasoline to make

>poor man's napalm. Acetone is safer. Cut your gate and save all the

>trimmings. Dissolve them in a metal bucket or pan with sufficient

>acetone to make a syrup. A thin coat of this can be painted on the

>gate to form a skin. If spread too thick the solvent may attack the

>foam on which it is being applied. I'd experiment a bit.

>A more time consuming and expensive method is to buy yards of cheap

>thin cloth and cans of that two part epoxee boat patch goo. You cover

>the cut styrofoam with the cloth and glue it on with the two part

>epoxee. This stuff is best used out of doors and in cold weather.

>Indoors it gives off noxious fumes. In warm weather it hardens too

>fast. The finished product is extremely tough. I once owned a

>styrofoam sailboat which I treated this way. When complete it was

>strong enough to use as a canoe in the local rivers.

>Jim Koch (Gladius The Alchemist)

I missed the original post, but the standard theatrical stuff is a

jellied paint called Sculp-or-Coat.

From: "lady sylvre" <admom at visi.com>

Newsgroups: rec.org.sca

Subject: Re: how do you harden styrofoam

Date: Tue, 27 Jan 2004 21:59:00 -0600

there is also available a product that is suitable for thick styrofoam --it

is a plastic-based plaster patch that looks for all the world like stone

when it is spread over the foam. it dries grey. we used it to cover

foundation insulation, outside, many years ago--and it has held up well,

except where it has taken a random hit by the lawnmower. it comes as a

powder, and you can mix it and apply it as thinly or heavily as you like.

found at the likes of menards, home depot, lowe's, etc.)

Honoria