Making Barn siding , antique flooring or old ramp areas.
These are the steps that I follow when making old barn siding or weathered flooring.
-starting with a doctors tongue depressor which I believe is birchwood,I cut the ends off square.
-now taking the raw wood, paint on two thin coat of acrylic nimbus grey mixed with a bit of raw umber,letting the grain of the underlying wood show through.If the wood warps too much you can use some weights to hold it flat as it dries.
-taking a large needle poke holes in the board in a pattern you require.
-take a HB pencil and twist a little graphite into each hole.
-fill each holes with a small drop of very watery raw umber to swell the wood back level again.
-take an old toothbrush and flick on some of the watery raw umber.
-put a small drop of watery burnt sienna for the rusty nail look.Drag a little of the burnt sienna down the board ,here and there for effect.
-the second picture shows how pastels can be used to soften down the whole thing.

Not the best figure painting in the world but acceptable for diorama purposes.None of these figures will be viewed this close up when in the diorama.I painted these with the use of overhead lighting in mind.
One of my personal goals is to one day paint like the pros and sculpt my own figures but in the meantime this will have to do.My next diorama "The Backyard Flier" will have fewer figures but of better quality.(I hope)

This thread has been a large benefit to all of us!

I truly enjoy your work , you are a master of this art forum . Thank-you . Cheers

Thanks Terri! glad you enjoy it! cheers! John.

Deleted Pictures in this thread.
Well I think that I have finally solved the deleted pics problem(DUH!)
Originally I thought that I was limited to 1000 pics in my photobucket album(which was never the case)and have been deleting the old pics as I go along.Mistake number one.The limit is on the main album but you can create as many sub-albums as you like.
Then I decided to move all the pics to sub-albums which of course broke all the original picture links.Unfortunately ,this is still the case until I get everything moved into sub-albums which should be soon.All my pics since the beginning will be there in the sub-albums.There they will remain until I croak as I don't intent to move them again.I haven't yet figured out if I can move them around in the sub-albums to put them in proper sequence without breaking the links again,so until I am absolutely sure they will be in a little disarray .
Sorry for the confusion you guys!In the future I plan to organize this thread into a sort of on-line book and at that time I will put the proper text with the pic that it is referring to.

My photobucket:
http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y250/JohnReid/

I have finished moving the pics to sub-albums and will attempt to restore some of the later ones to this thread.The names on the sub-albums pretty much explain the contents however the pics within those sub-albums are in no particular order.

Example:
This pic can be found at my photobucket sub-album "Jenny Canuck dio3"

From "Carpenters Shop dio3"

From: Office module dio3

The front panel!
Putting the front panel back together for the last time.I have taken a series of pics showing how to take this thing apart and put it back together.It is surprisingly easy if you know how .The landscaping,modules ,hangar walls,roof and rafters right down to the hangar floor can be taken apart in half an
hour and put back together in about an hour.(it always takes longer)I would recommend to anyone building a large diorama that you take the extra time to make it easily taken apart.
I want to put together a picture package for the museum as I believe that in this case a pic is worth a thousand words.
The first pic shows the front area completely taken apart.The next few will show how to put it all back together again.
These pics are all located in my sub-album "Construction dio3".

every time I see your work here , I find things that I missed the first time . Wow you are truly a inspiration to this site I keep coming back for more and more . Thanks for share your work with us here on this site .

This is the small roof area above the hangar doors that required finishing and a bit of weathering.Now it is on to the light fixture above the Reid & Sons sign.

Another pic