Thanks everyone.
Bish, yes this is the same plastic as the Revell of Germany boxing. The big difference being markings...though the Promodeler version shares on scheme in common with the RoG boxing. Other difference is that you get the tail swastikas in this one...whereas you don't in the RoG boxes (I'll be using masking for most everything though).
Joe, I snapped a couple of in progress pics of the wood graining...I'm going to do ao in-depth tutorial for the blog, but until then:
(Note....I didn't invent this...a lot of people do something similar...however...I did kind of figure it out on my own back before forums and all that :D)
First I spray a base color...you can vary this depending on what final effect you want...but I usually go a light tan, or buff...sometimes I'll use Vallejo "natural wood."
Let that dry and then I break out the artist oils. For the first step here I used burnt umber
I spread it across the surface in the direction I want the grain. I use a stiff fine tipped brush to "draw" the grain into the paint. Because oils are so workable you can play with it a while...you can als0 use a number of different things to impart the grain. On large surfaces a piece of foam packing (like Aires packs stuff in) is great...just pull it along in the direction of grain...for this small surface a fine tipped brush worked well...I'll also use a wider brush in some instances.
The biggest thing is to let the oil dry completely...I let this first application dry 3 days...if you try to go over it, or put a clear coat on it will just wipe the effect away....oil takes a while to dry!
After significant drying time I decided to use another color (raw sienna) and repeat the process...just to vary the color a bit...it's all up to discretion
The above pic is after a gloss coat....if you want to give a varnished look you can finish it with straight gloss or tinted gloss....some people use a clear orange or mix of orange and yellow...I'm going to source some to give it a try...but I don't think these pieces need it...biplane struts and such I'd be more inclined to tint since they are usually highly varnished