by Fran Casselman
Materials:
#39011 Rustic Clapboard Siding Strips
#9146 Basswood Strip Wood, 1/4" x 1/16"
#1073 Fred’s Wood Weathering Stuff
Pencil
Ruler
Utility scissors
Soft paintbrush (not too small, not foam)
Non-metal dish or bowl
Paper towels
Books or other weights
Graph paper or other square grid
Masking tape
White glue
Nail clipper (optional)
Process is somewhat messy; protect work area.
With utility scissors, cut siding strips to desired length for height of fence, 8" used in scene. Try to cut uniform lengths with square ends. Strips are approximately 1" wide; cut enough for desired length of fence plus a few extra. If your fence needs to be more than 12" or so long, try making it in sections. Cut two pieces of strip wood the length of each section of fence. Tip: For more strength, glue additional strip wood pieces to the back of the fence section. My fence did not require posts but if you need them, #17529, 3/8" x 1/2" Strip Wood, should work well.
Shake Weather-It well (not mentioned in product directions but helpful) and pour some into bowl. Paint both sides of each siding strip and strip wood piece with solution but don’t soak strips. Aged appearance will begin immediately and darken as strips dry. Lay damp strips between layers of paper towel or other absorbent material and weight so strips dry flat. Allow to dry thoroughly. Clean hands, brush and bowl with soap and water; any staining to skin will be temporary.
Using graph paper or another grid (such as a cutting mat) set up a right-angle “jig” to assemble the fence. (Tape strip wood pieces or similar to the cutting mat or graph paper to align the bottom and left side.) Put two lengths of masking tape, sticky side up, the length of the fence section (hold them in place with more tape at the ends). Starting in the square corner, stick fence boards to the tape, keeping the boards as straight as possible. The board edges will not meet perfectly, which provides a very realistic look.
When all the boards for a section are stuck down, draw lines 1 1/2" down from the top and 2" up from the bottom across all boards. Glue the strip wood pieces at the top of the lines and weight until dry. Fence section complete! Repeat for other sections.
For the dog-eared look used in the scene, draw a guide line 1/4" down from the top on the back of the section and use nail clippers to evenly cut the corners off of each board. Tip: clip one corner of every board and flip the section over to do the second corners.