Making plastic look like finished wood?

Get a look at what you are trying to replicate. You live in Phillie. There's the PMA, the Independence Hall Museum, whatever. Go spend some time and look at something close to the subject.

Smeagol, absolutely, last listen to what others would do. We all do that, but it takes a bit of experience to extract the 10% good from the rest. You are clearly a modeler with enough interest to find your own way.

I'm not familiar with that model, but in general cast wood grain in models is horrible and needs to be sanded off. Do it with paint alone.

I'll be in Phil. the weekend of the 18th of Nov. wife my wife. Would be good to see you.

We all have different methods. Here's mine:  Use an acrylic brown as a basecoat. Let dry for a day or so then use artist's oils as washes to get the wood tone you like. The  more washes you add, the richer the finish will become. Expeiment with the brush streaking the wash to add grain. You can use a hair dryer to speed up the drying. The basecoat has to be lighter than the washes. The darker brown washes will add the depth and tone.

Hmmm ok Im gonna grab some extra plastic and try out some techniques.  I ask because I was watching American Restoration and he did some technique on bare plastic for a juke box and it absolutely looked like real wood.

Every time I look at real wood the grain looks more like lines then it does solid color, like a bunch of tiny lines, im wondering whats the best way to replicate that as well.

ok, the other 80%

option 1: vinyl wood grain. stick on wood, hey it works for cheap furniture!

option 2: paint http://fauxfinishhowto.com/Faux_Wood_Painting.html

option 3: replace with actual wood and stain.

oh, i also found this

http://www.diynetwork.com/how-to/how-to-paint-a-faux-wood-grain/index.html

fyi, search google with term "paint faux wood" (faux is french for fake).

SWEET I was searching for 'painting wood grain on plastic' which yielded nothing.  thanks so much

On another forum I saw a guy building a WW I plane and I thought he was using real wood but it was plastic.

I'll try to find it and post  on here how he did it.

Kentucky Colonel

On another forum I saw a guy building a WW I plane and I thought he was using real wood but it was plastic.

I'll try to find it and post  on here how he did it.

That would be very appreciated.  I won the auction for atleast one of the kits, a french wheel lock pistol.

You mean like this?

I wrote a tutorial about how I did wood grain on my Pup: http://doogsmodels.com/2011/03/31/wingnut-wings-sopwith-pup-build-report-1-with-the-grain/

I know others get a lot more in-depth with it, but I'm happy enough with my approach...

Well I'm not sure how much I am going to need this for on the wheel lock pistol but its still a good technique to try and learn, plus I'm attempting to win a 1/1 scale Kentucky long rifle from Pyro models as well and that would need A LOT of it.

It really does seem like a inaccurate science, I might try the sponge method, did you just put dabs of color and spread with with the sponge? or did you paint the whole thing and then wipe it off?

The one I saw is like what Doog posted except he used Tamiya Flat Flesh for a base coat and Clear Orange.

Smeagol - paint the whole thing and then wipe. It's the wiping that creates the grain effect.

Kentucky Col - yes, you can use different shades to get different looks for the wood. 

It seems daunting at first, but it's actually quite easy. For pioneer tools on armor, I've been doing a lazy version of this with brushed-on Vallejo Clear Orange.

Some of the guys on this forum should be able to help.I know a guy that made a resin gaffi stick look like it was made of wood.

http://www.therpf.com/

STV, Lots of methods out there.  There are different ways to get the grain.  Here area couple of methods I tried and was pleased with the results 

About 2/3-3/4 down this page...

http://www.aeroscale.co.uk/modules.php?op=modload&name=SquawkBox&file=index&req=viewtopic&topic_id=174180&ord=&page=4

or near the bottom of this one...

http://www.aeroscale.co.uk/modules.php?op=modload&name=SquawkBox&file=index&req=viewtopic&topic_id=179115#1504333

Well I didn't win the long rifle saddly, 80+ bucks and shipping was a bit to pricey for me.  I dunno how much bare wood is on the pistol I did win though, it was a really ornate french pistol model.  Regardless I'm saving this thread and the links, its absolutely something to learn and master.

I don't know if this is the sort of thing that you would be interested in or not, but Artool have a couple of airbrush stencil sets from Dennis Mathewson - "Wood Grain FX". A pic & a link for you;

http://www.iwata-medea.com/index.php/artool/freehand/wood_grain_fx

Oh, thats actually very nice!  Thanks for the link.