Man, after looking at pzcreations Elephant in the contest forum, it got me thinking, how'd he get the wood on his tools looking so good? Mine never look that good, no where near!
Need some tips here folks, what would a good base colour be to use? Brand of paint? My tools and equipment on figs are just not up to par for me anymore, and I want to greatly improve in this area...suggestions?
thanks all
Kelly

Hey Kelly

This is what I have done with pretty good results. Base coat with Tamiya Buff.. when dry, brush on some burnt sienna water mixable oil paint. Let this dry for 20-30 minutes. Then, with a clean damp brush, wipe the paint off in one direction only. Clean the brush and repeat untill you have the loook you want. You can change the base coat to say, a desert yellow, for a different look...

I did the butt of this mg this way.. I thought it turned out pretty well

Dave

Wow. Nice job Mojo. The butt of that gun looks very realistic. Gonna have to try this on some of the tools I have lying around.

Thanks for the tip

That does look real. I'm going to have to give it a try too.

Mojo, that's awesome, gonna give that a try! Thanks for the tip!

I guess it would also depend on (a) what the object you are wanting to simmulate a woodgrain on and (b) the scale you are workin on. If you are working in 1/48 scale - or even 1/72 - World War I aircraft for example, and wanted to simmilate woodgrain on a propeller, then it would be supurb. But if you are going for something like a shovel handle, or an MG stock, the woodgrain would be verrrrrrrrry subtle.

I havent tried this yet - and i will for sure use Dave's awesome technique (It rocks mate!)- but when i look at my shovels sitting in the back garden shed, the woodgrain doesnt come up like a highly polished floorboard, but rather a weather beaten dirty grey. If its used in the field, id be more inclined to show some wear and tear.

Cheers,

A.

wow dave, that is really impressive! would it work with the regular oil paint, you know, the ones you thin with turpentine? while you're at it, maybe you could also tell us how you painted the rest of the gun. is that plain gun metal with some chipping? probably not right?

Rovik
you could use regular oil paint for that. I think I would dull coat the basecoat first though. Do the same technique just using turps or white spirits. on a clean brush..

That MG is painted flat black, then rubbed with graphite powder. I use a Q-tip/cotton bud.. The graphite is shaved from a pencil I bought at an art supply store.. itll last a lifetime.. Then a drybrush of Model Master enaml steel..

Aaron..I havent tried it yet, but if you mixed up a grey and did the same thing it should work.. Any ideas on what to use for a base coat? Off white or maybe an earthy tone??

Dave

great tip! i'll try that on the big MG for the russian JS-3 i just started. thanks dave.