Westlake Publishing Forums

Quote from: Lawrence@NZFinescale on August 19, 2026, 10:18:59 AMHave a look at VMS.  Their universal weathering carrier works well for oils and is relatively fast drying.  Oils are pretty popular with the military set, so there are products to work with them intended for modelling, in that they dry faster and are good for the sort of effect that you are after.

Pardon my ignorance, but what is VMS?

Thanks nk, My understanding is a "carrier" is/are the ingredient(s) that make the paint fluid, e.g. water is a carrier for acrylic paint and so are flow aides. Acrylic resin could be both a carrier and the binder.

QuoteAny suggestion for the thinner to use when making washes with artist oil paint?

I use mineral spirits/white spirits, which should be mostly aliphatic compounds, which have a low toxicity. Just check to make sure there is not a lot of aromatic content as that is very bad for you. Good ventilation is also important.

QuoteHere's a question about using oil paints for weathering that I've wondered about for quite a while:
I've read many times that modellers put a dab of oil paint on a piece of cardboard and let it sit there some length of time to absorb much of the oil from the paint before they apply it to a model.

My understanding is that oil is both the carrier and the binder for the paint. So if much of the oil is removed and thinner is then added to the remaining paint, is there a long term problem with oil paint not adhering to whatever it's applied to?

The main purpose of reducing the amount of oil with cardboard before using it is to adjust the binder/pigment ratio. With less binder, the pigments play a larger part of the paint film's topography and is increasingly rougher (on a microscopic scale) so you end up with a matte paint film. With more medium, the oil forms a smoother surface and you get a glossier paint film. I can't see any problem with a reduced amount of oil, there should still be enough to hold the paint film together.

I am not sure of the difference between carrier and binder (and medium). To me they seem to be the same for a paint film. Can you tell me what you mean by carrier?

Thanks Russ,
Logging history of the Western United States is a very fascinating  subject, well probably only if you're interested in it.

A little follow up.
That last picture posted is of a set of slip tongue wheels that were built about 1910 by the Redding Iron Works of Redding, CA. they were used in the logging woods of the Northern Sierra's and Southern Cascade's until 1939 when they were sold to a private party. A Mr. Abbott who bought the wheels along with other equipment opened a trading post and cafe along highway 44 in Northern California, put the wheels on display out front and named the business Big Wheels.
Those wheels sat out front for nearly 70 years until a new owner had them restored to new condition in 2008, that is the wheels you see in the above picture with the horse.

As a high school kid I worked on ranches in that vicinity and often ate at that cafe. I have several pictures of the wheels and the old Best steam tractor and other equipment that sat on display around the outside.

The Big Wheels trading post shortly after it opened in 1939.


We might as well finish up with the "wheels" while were here.


The final stage of the "Big Wheels" development was the adaptation to the crawler tractor.


This closes the Big Wheels section of this brief history. As said above it would take pages and pages of text and pictures to tell the whole story of the Big wheels in the woods.

Now for the next generation of log skidding equipment in the woods, the steel arches.

Thanks for following along.

 

Here's a question about using oil paints for weathering that I've wondered about for quite awhile:
I've read many times that modellers put a dab of oil paint on a piece of cardboard and let it sit there some length of time to absorb much of the oil from the paint before they apply it to a model.

My understanding is that oil is both the carrier and the binder for the paint. So if much of the oil is removed and thinner is then added to the remaining paint, is there a long term problem with oil paint not adhering to whatever it's applied to? 

A very informative tutorial on early logging. Thank you. -- Russ

Quote from: Hauk on August 19, 2026, 06:31:50 AMAny suggestion for the thinner to use when making washes with artist oil paint?

Have a look at VMS.  Their universal weathering carrier works well for oils and is relatively fast drying.  Oils are pretty popular with the military set, so there are products to work with them intended for modelling, in that they dry faster and are good for the sort of effect that you are after.

The earliest known advancement in log movement from dragging on the ground was the use of the wheel and axle. No telling how far back or where it was first used, I suspect that it probably originated in Europe or somewhere else in the "Old World" and was brought to the "New World" by the migrants. As is the case with most inventions it probably had more than one point of origin.

In the early years of this country on the eastern coast where the logs were of a size that the colonists were used to dealing with they used a setup they commonly called a "bummer" this was basically two wagon wheels and a short, stout axle that one end of the log was set on top of or suspended under, secured and hauled by a draft animal.




The introduction of the "Big Wheels" method of moving logs was recorded as early as the 1840's but patented designs didn't appear until the 1890's. Called "Big Wheels" because of the 10 to 12 foot diameter they were able to handle much larger diameter logs and lift the ends of the logs high off the ground.

Two distinct types of big wheels were developed, the "stiff tongue" and the "slip tongue" both of these styles were pulled by horse teams. By the 1920's when crawler tractors were making major inroads on logging in the woods both styles of big wheels were adapted for use behind the tractors.


The "stiff tongue" wheels were loaded by raising the tongue to a nearly vertical position and attaching the logs to the axel, then the tongue was pulled down raising the logs off the ground. The problem here was, no brakes for the down hill stretches.


The slip tongue was an upgrade from the stiff tongue. Basically the tongue was slid back, the logs attached, and as the team pulled the tongue slid forward lifting the log ends off the ground.  When the team stopped or slowed the tongue would slide back lowering the logs creating a braking effect.

That's all for now.

For oil painting I used balsam turpentine oil, but keep in mind that color tends to dry for quite some time. White spirit and turpentine substitute may be the better choice for model painting. Another advantage of oil based colors: applying pigments onto a nearly dried surface leeds to very subtle effects. I think one can control that better with oil than water based colors, too. This works on dried acrylics as well. For oily surfaces I used a water based product (I think it was Vallejo oil stains) at the underfloor switching device, but found it hard to replicate the effect later on some Wheelsets. Went back to oil ...

Quote from: nk on August 18, 2026, 04:10:55 PMI am going to suggest that artists paints are the way to go for subtle weathering effects. They stay reworkable for days even a week or so, and because the solvents are non-polar there are no tidelines. You can mix your own colours so you are not tied to a palette thought up by someone else. The versatility of oils for weathering is second to none. There are some health and safety issues with the pigments, but read up on it and be careful. They take practice and are a little expensive, but tubes of paint will last a long time.

Any suggestion for the thinner to use when making washes with artist oil paint?