Painting plastic to look like wood

[chasearlyrr]

I am trying to model in the pre 1900 era, and was looking for some suggestions on the best method to paint styrene plastic buildings to look like a wood finish.  Can anyone mention a good paint kind and supplier, or technique, to get different kinds of "wood" looks?

[hminky]

 

 

 

 

There is my method:

http://www.pacificcoastairlinerr.com/aging_wood/

and

http://www.pacificcoastairlinerr.com/weathered_wood/

 

Thank you if you visit
Harold

[Southwest Chief]

This was for some of my G scale models, but I too wanted to paint bare styrene to look like wood.  Specifically styrene for wood decking and gondola interior walls.

I started with Plaid Folk Art "Barnwood paint".  Looks like this:

 

After painting the barnwood base, I used Polly Scale Steam Power Black in a very diluted wash.  I think the "wood" look turned out pretty good.

 

These two photos will give you an idea of the bare styrene before painting:

 

The only problem I could think of using this method would be the thickness of the barnwood paint for smaller scales like HO.  This stuff works great on large surface areas.  Like the kind you get with G scale.  But it is relatively thick paint so that is why I don't think it would be so great in the smaller scales.

[dknelson]

There is some very nice modeling in the sets of pictures above, isn't there?

For fresh unpainted wood, I have used a spraycan paint from Tamiya called Wood Deck Tan.   

The late Art Curren, in his book on Kitbashing, shows how he used a brass wire brush (brass due to its softness compared to steel) to get some texture into styrene "wood."  Part of the reason he did this was just to cut the shine rather than gouge in wood grain.  Don't overdo it - a few feet away wood looks pretty smooth even if it is weatherbeaten (the gondola above being a great example).  He also maintained that he got as a good a result with a sequence of washes as with an airbrush -- even if Curren  left the plastic unpainted, which he did whenever the molded plastic color struck him as plausible  -- the washes would fill the minute lines created by the brass wire brush.

Dave Nelson