Simplest 1 minute wood effect

[mitchy]

I was tinkering with my Vallejo acrylics and thought I would try something I did at 1:1 scale for a friend’s faux wood grain.

On a 10mm wide strip of styrene sheet sanded with 2000 grit, I applied light coats of Yellow Ochre with a 3mm brush in the required grain direction.

This base coat was left to dry briefly and the required result is fairly streaky; here the trick is to use long strokes and try to even out as much as you feel is necessary, remembering that wood is not uniform.

With the base now reasonably dry, I mixed yellow ochre, red and black 4:2:1, and applied dabs of this mix randomly over the whole strip. I did not apply this like the base coat, - just random thick-ish dabs. Think leopard skin.

Instantly running a clean dry fingertip along the whole length and simultaneously rolling it back and forth gives a fine random graining. You may decide to run another clean fingertip along the length if required.

After a short dry I could rub the surface again with my clean dry fingers and buff it to a satin varnish/wax finish.

I hope this is of use, I shall be searching for opportunities!

[Bainford]

Very interesting. I'm sure a little practice is required to get good results, but your example looks fantastic. Very convincing, thanks for the tip.

[mitchy]

Thanks.

This was actually my first attempt at  this in small scale (I learnt by doing a load of doors in an apartment a while back). 

I actually tried making a little grain effect tool out of an eraser, but then realised that my fingers are by far more effective and finer scale.

the yellow blodge at centre is my fault, trying to pencil-in a little knot but the paint was still soft. A little dot of brown wil fix that!

[Ace-Garageguy]

Very realistic final effect. Thanks.  

[vintagercr]

Great tip, thanks for sharing.

[70mach1]

Great tip! gave me a Woody

[Anglia105E]

Many thanks Mitchy..... that is a good effect for wood grain on styrene, and I feel confident to have a go myself!

David

[mitchy]

On 12/15/2018 at 4:34 PM, 70mach1 said:

Great tip! gave me a Woody

%?D

cheeky

[mitchy]

On 12/16/2018 at 1:27 AM, Anglia105E said:

Many thanks Mitchy..... that is a good effect for wood grain on styrene, and I feel confident to have a go myself!

David

I’m going to give it a go on the pickup bed and sides of my just-started Ford Model T.