Wood grain painting

[conchan]

Trying to recreate the wood grain patterns of some dashes, door panels, etc, but no idea how. How is it done?

I don’t have access to an air brush. Only brushes and cans. 

Stay safe and enjoy!

[Erik Smith]

Easiest way is:

Base coat tan or light brown. 
Dry brush a darker brown kind of representing wood grain. 
Cover with Tamiya clear orange. 
 

I’ve only done it with Tamiya acrylic paints, but other similar products would probably work. 

Edited February 21, 2022 by Erik Smith

[OldNYJim]

I have a technique I like to use with a fan brush and two colors of whatever brown paint I have to hand…doesn’t need to be anything fancy…

If you go to this thread and scroll down towards the bottom I posted some pics of painting some grain:

 

[Russell C]

For flat uninterrupted panel areas, I cheat:  cutout areas from magazine pages that show finely grained wood, doublesided taped to the interior.

[conchan]

4 hours ago, Erik Smith said:

I’ve only done it with Tamiya acrylic paints, but other similar products would probably work. 

I only have Tamiya paints at the moment so it’s good to know that they work with this technique. Appreciate you taking the time to answer my question. 
 

Stay safe and enjoy!

[conchan]

1 hour ago, Russell C said:

For flat uninterrupted panel areas, I cheat:  cutout areas from magazine pages that show finely grained wood, doublesided taped to the interior.

Interesting idea. Unfortunately, my panels are not smooth. Thanks for the idea.

[conchan]

6 hours ago, CabDriver said:

I have a technique I like to use with a fan brush and two colors of whatever brown paint I have to hand…doesn’t need to be anything fancy…

If you go to this thread and scroll down towards the bottom I posted some pics of painting some grain:

 

Thanks for the link. The build looks really interesting. 
I’ll give your technique a try. 
stay safe and enjoy!

[slusher]

9 hours ago, Russell C said:

For flat uninterrupted panel areas, I cheat:  cutout areas from magazine pages that show finely grained wood, doublesided taped to the interior.

Good tip…thanks.

[slusher]

12 hours ago, Erik Smith said:

Easiest way is:

Base coat tan or light brown. 
Dry brush a darker brown kind of representing wood grain. 
Cover with Tamiya clear orange. 
 

I’ve only done it with Tamiya acrylic paints, but other similar products would probably work. 

Easy to remember, thanks sir..

[Dpate]

A lot of folks use oil paints like Winsor & Newton raw umber, Burnt Sienna, etc along with a fan style paint brush. Only thing is - is the oil can take a long time too dry.  You could even do clear orange on top too.

[conchan]

Thanks all for the great advice. I tried it out on the Mercedes and it worked well enough for a first try. 
Stay safe and enjoy!

[slusher]

I have seen some uses of wood grain contact paper. A 10.00 roll from Walmart would last forever..

[peteski]

Contac "paper" is a vinyl film which shrinks slightly after few years. Don't ask how I know.

[espo]

4 hours ago, peteski said:

Contac "paper" is a vinyl film which shrinks slightly after few years. Don't ask how I know.

I admit to decorating the dashboard of my car man y years ago when a wood trim dash was a thing. The guy I sold it to called me about a year later to cuss me out. 

[Rick L]

?

Our best lessons are from our mistakes.

The dry brush technique works very well. Start with a light base color and work darker shades each layer. Making sure each layer of paint is dry before laying on the next works best for me. It gives the grain more definition. 

[conchan]

17 hours ago, Rick L said:

The dry brush technique works very well

Thanks for the advice.