Introduction

Vallejo is a well-known and highly trusted manufacturer of paint and other finishing and weathering supplies. It is the rare modeler who doesn’t have something that came from Vallejo somewhere on the model bench.

Over the past couple of years paint manufacturers have been putting paints and other supplies into sets to help you replicate everything from French WWI tanker uniforms to modern aircraft colors. Vallejo has also been busy on this front as well. One such effort is the subject of this review; the new paint set for Old & New Wood Effects, reference #71.187.

Review

The set comes in a nice hanging style box, so if your bench sports any of the pegboard type material it will hang nicely. Inside you will find a colorful fold out sheet created for Vallejo by the well-known modeler Scratchmod Rob. Vallejo includes 8 different 17 ml. dropper style bottles. You get one Surface Primer 70.614 IDF Israeli Sand Grey 61-73, one 517 Dark Gray Wash from the Model Color line, as well as the following 6 colors from the Model Air line; 71.027 Light Brown, 71.032 Golden Brown, 71.075 Sand (Ivory), 71.077 Wood, 71.131 Concrete, and 71.141 IDF Sand gray 73.

I decided that I would give them a try, truthfully, how could I resist! An old wooden cart from MB or maybe Masterbox has been hanging around for a couple of years and it seemed like the perfect candidate to test these out on.

Taking a look at some of the blog work that Scratchmod has done on the Vallejo site convinced me that he is a much better modeler than I so I choose to follow his instructions in the fold out sheet. The fold out sheet is really top notch, easy to understand painting instructions and nice clear photos that show what to expect every step of the way. Also, if is written in both Spanish and English so if Spanish is your first language and you find it easier to understand you are all set.

I began by spraying a couple of light coats of the primer on and then setting it to dry until the next day. The instructions lay out for you the painting of both new weathered wool and old weathered wood, so I did the left side as old and the right as new only because I am left handed and old, so it fit for me! You can see the results off to the right here, but in case the pictures don’t show up or the quality doesn’t translate I will give a quick rundown.

For the old weathered wood it starts with an even coat of the 71.131 Concrete followed by a random spray of the 71.141 IDF Sand Grey. I used an old business card as a shield to mask individual boards and then dry brushed a bit over the entire surface to catch the highlights but tried to concentrate on the edges. After that had dried for a bit I used the 517 Dark Gray Wash. I learned that a little bit of this goes a long way, so do be aware and test first. A special word about the wash, I really liked this product, it was very easy to work with and gave the wood a real pop to it. After the wash has dried it was back to the Sand Grey to highlight just the most prominent areas. After that you can add whatever extra colors you want; I used a very sparing wash and called it a day. I was pleased with the way that it turned out, not quite as nice as Scratchmod’s work but better than my normal efforts at wood.

The new weathered wood followed the same general pattern, albeit with some different colors. After the primer a nice even coat of 71.032 Golden Brown followed by the 517 Dark Gray Wash to really get the details to pop. This was followed with a dry brushed shot of 71.027 Light Brown and then picking out some of the highlights and edges with the Golden Brown. After this Scratchmod recommended to go at it with an additional thin coat of the 517 Dark Gray Wash. It was finished off with some very light dry brushing with the 71.075 Sand (Ivory). I felt the Sand was a little much so I used a bit of the Dark Wash to tone it back down again and called it done. Before I move on to the conclusion let me throw a bit of irony your way; one of the colors that Scratchmod never calls out for use…71.077 Wood, go figure!

Conclusion

I really liked this set, both the techniques for old and new weathered wood were easy to follow and both turned out much better at other attempts that I have made at making plastic look like wood. I know that all of these colors are available outside of the set but these package deals always work well for me, saves me time from hunting around and trying to determine if I have the right color for whatever I am doing. I like that this particular set includes both the primer and the wash and truly gives you everything you would need.