Norm walks us through a wood grain technique

By Norman Witte

Like most model building techniques, I’m sure that there are a dozen different ways to do wood grain. I only know that until a month or so ago, my best attempt was to slather some brown paint on something and hope that my brush marks were convincing evidence that wood was involved in the process. (Hint: it wasn’t.)

I have found, however, that if you promise to do something that you don’t know how to do, that’s a powerful motivator to learn how to do that thing. I have also found that AI has become a useful tool. Just yesterday, it resolved my concern about failing to activate the yeast in my pizza dough before mixing it. But I digress.

The thing that I committed to was building the interior for a 1/32 scale B-17F that members of the Capital Area Modelers Society agreed to construct on commission. I figured worst case, I could probably find some woodsy decals, but when I asked AI, it gave me a process so simple and so effective that I actually blew myself away. I am going to share that process in a slightly more detailed fashion here.

The first step for me is almost always a coat of Mr. Finishing Surfacer 1500 black primer, and this is no exception. Once the part is primed, I spray some rough wood graining patterns in the panel to be wood grained using a thin coat of a light paint, perhaps doing several coats. In this case I was using AK Real Colors RC896 Sand. Be artistic: leave some voids and try to be random.

Next, I sprayed the same sand color in an overall coat, being careful to keep my coats thin enough to preserve the veining I did earlier. You could use a different color for this if you want, and, as you’ll see, that’s what I did on a different project.

The next step was adding wood grain highlights using a stencil.

Because my base color was light, I went for a dark color for the wood grain, in this case AK Real Colors RC887 NATO Brown. I bought the stencil from Michigan Toy Soldier. I was in the store, and debating about whether to buy it, when my son said, “You only live once.” This was a true statement. The brand is Liang, and there are four different versions, LIA-0301 through LIA-0304. They are available on Michigan Toy Soldier’s website, though they may be found other places. I ended up trimming part of the stencil away because the border of the stencil wouldn’t allow me to get as close to the edge of the door as I wanted. You might consider picking up a few of these stencils for this reason; sometimes the area to be wood grained isn’t as flat and open as you’d like. This picture shows the result.

So, this looks ok, but this is where AI told me about the secret sauce: Tamiya X26 Clear Orange. You bought this for the marker lights, but you kept if for the furniture. The clear orange adds warmth and the gloss finish gives the wood a varnished look.

Once the areas around the wood are painted, it looks very convincing, as the main picture on this article shows.

If you would like to give the surface a paneled effect, that is easy enough to do. Just mask off the wood area, then mask off and paint a couple panels separately.

I like the PaintRack app; it allows you to create sets and save notes regarding those sets. Now I have a PaintRack set for the B-17 plywood.

If you want a different look, you can mix up the colors a bit. I’m building a diorama base for a F-105D that I am very confident I will complete. I am printing it using my FDM printer and wanted to make the sides of the base look like wood. Rather than veneering it as I originally intended, with my newfound painting skills, I faux-lumbered it instead.