How to paint realistic wooden propellers?

You have to look at your subject too, some used laminated props as in Doogs post, but not all did. I don't know if it occured on WW1 aircraft, but many post-war British aircraft wrapped canvas around the wood props for added strength because of the more powerful aircraft engines.

Thanks to Hughes2682, I've become a fan of oils and a fan brush (a wide flat brush that is shaped like a Japanese fan) for wood grain. I use a base coat, then use two colors of oils. It gives some texture hinting at wood grain without looking like 1-1 wood grain on a 1/72 model. For larger scales you can really get into the wood grain effects with oils and a fan brush, even throwing in the occasional knot (I can't but I've seen others pull of amazing wood grain with that technique).

I think like weathering and panel lines, there are two trains of thought here (even if many don't actually think about it consciously).  For one, there is making it as accurate as possible, as if you scaled down the original. In this case some details you notice up close on the full size subject would not be visible at scale and from scale distance.

The other, perhaps more artistic train of thought would be accentuating an effect. The latter being a caricature for sure, but making a model interesting by drawing attention to an accentuated detail that the modeler would like a viewer to notice.

The model builder is of course, free to decide.

Myself, I find artistic license to be a lot more fun.  :)

Now Hans, don't go putting what things really look like into the discussion of painting models.  There is no need for that kind of thinking here.  Scale down actual wood grain to 1/48 and see how visible it isn't.

PS - huge amount of sarcasm was used in the making of this post.

Just FYI, most Camels didn't have really visible wood-grain to their props... They were heavily varnished, which hid most, if not all the wood grain-detail and a lot of teh lamination... Photos of Camels in museums usually have reconditioned or replica props since balance isn't an issue, and those that are flying have modern wood props..

I use a black sharpie marker to draw grain lines where I want them.  Then paint over the lines with Testor's wood with an airbrush just enough to almost eliminate the lines (like if you were preshading).  The I use a fan brush with burnt umber oil paint to finish the look.

Here's a pretty good shot of the prop I did for my Se-5a last winter

Thanks for the link Doogs.  Every once in a while I build a WWI plane and other than the flying wires the prop usually gives me the most trouble. This will really help a lot.

Jim

Very glad you asked that question so I could see doogs reply.  This has been book marked and will come in very handy for the WWI GB.  Thanks to you both.

Check out this tutorial.

http://www.aeroscale.co.uk/modules.php?op=modload&name=Sections&file=index&req=viewarticle&page=1&artid=3009

Dude's work is sick...