?best colors to use for wood rifle stocks

Wooden rifle/smg stocks come in all different colors.  I've seen some stocks in chestnut brown, red brown, brown with blackish lines.  I personally own quite a few WWII relics and all of them have different color woods.  Check out this website for the photo of restored M1 garand and M1 carbine.  http://www.miltecharms.com/

Hi

I use this technique to paint wooden parts on rifles. I use humbrol matt leather! believe it or not. I base coat it with this. Once dry I apply successive layers of thinned out black wash (artist acrylics) and apply more of this wash in the deep shadow areas. Your end product is red/brown looking dirty stock. This looks quite effective on German rifles as I have loads of reference pics and this generally seems to be the colour. For a lighter shade you could try yellow ochre with a touch of burnt umber applied in successive washes and shaded with thinned out black.

I hope this helps

Arthur

Appreciate the help, guys!

Stand in the door!

Mike

I base coat in Humbrol 94, then paint it with Burnt Umber oils. I use a lot more paint than I need, and also try to get more carrier than normally desirable, so that it leaves dark streaks with a thin varnish that lets the undercoat show through. Leaves a nice, dark wood color and texture.

I don't think that there is a definative set of colors.  Photographs of my grandfathers M1 carbine indicate the weapon changed colors during campaign.  On Okinawa the weapon gradually changed from a light walnut to a deep dark brown.  Use stained the wood.

Coincidentally, I visited the Singleton Infantry Museum yesterday. I photographed a lot of rifles, machine guns and anti-tank weapons. The furniture comes in furniture colours. I'd say, whatever you do, don't stick to one colour. I read a book recently about the war in North Africa, from 1940-43, and it referred to the colour of the rifle butts, because Australians used new rifles with honey-coloured stocks, while the British used rifles from WW1 that had been stored in grease, and were much, much darker in colour (possibly simulated by an oil wash?).

Will upload pics of guns later and advise somewhere of their location if anyone's interested in photos of 2pdr, 6pdr, 17pdr, PaK38, Panzerschreck, Nordenfeldt, Maxim, Gatling, trench mortar, grenade thrower, and firearms from the C19th to today.