Tutorial: Painting Wood Effects August 26, 2015 14:42

After the release of my first batch of Eastern Front, Eastern European / Russian buildings which are predominately natural wood, I recieved a number of requests on how I achieved the painting effect.

Please note......ENSURE EACH LAYER OF PAINT / WASH IS FULLY DRY before going onto the next step. This will avoid dragging up foundation layers of paint and "muddying" the colours.

 

 

 

In this brief tutorial I will take you through step-by-step on how I completed painting the prepared  "Hunter's Lodge" in just one hour.

Step 1: Assemble the kit according to the supplied instructions.

Step 2: Glue the waney edged cardboard tiles (supplied with the kit) to the roof. start at the bottom and work up towards the top. After each "plank" is glued coat with full strength PVA on the top to seal the cardboard. As you coat the PVA, it will start to dry, drag this along the length of the planks and this will provide grain texture when fully dry. Trim excess card with a craft knife when each side is dry.

Step 3: Using car primer, spray grey then overspray with Halfords Khaki matt paint.

Step 4: The hour's painting starts here! Using a wide brush, drybrush UPHILL at first to pick out the timber edges then along the planks with a light scrubbing motion (use an old brush for this). I used cheap Tan coloured acrylic from the Hobby shop called "Crafters Acrylic". Apply a lighter drybrush of Crafters Acrylic Bleached Sand (Bleached Bone would work just as well). At this stage the model will look too light and chalky.

Step 5: Apply a wash (I used Games Workshop Agrax Earthshade) to selected random wall planks, using the engraved lines as a guide. On the roof apply the wash towards the top of each plank to emphasise the depth of the planking. When applying washes in this manner, apply quickly and wipe any excess with a finger to blend. At this stage, it all looks too stark and stripey. This needs to be toned down to bring the colours together.

Step 6: With a very watery mix of medium brown acrylic (I used P3 Formula Bloodtracker Brown) liberally coat the whole model exept the light edges to the windows to retain their definition. As the paint drys, rub excess away with a finger, this action will reveal the lighter colours underneath. This rich brown wash unifies the colour and reduces the contrast yet provides depth.

Step 7: I watered down a very dark brown acrylic( in this example, I used Vallejo Charred Brown) to a milky consistency and selectively applied around the lower planks of the model, under the eaves, under the door hinges and window cills. A small amout of wash was also between the roof planks to give a little extra depth. I then used a pale blue to pick out the skylight frame followed by black on the door hinges and latch. A watery mix of medium green (in this case Vallejo Luftwaffe Green) was applied to areas to represent algae growing on shaded sections of the roof.

This mode l was complete in one hour. I did use a hairdryer to speed things up. For the other Eastern Front wooden buildings I painted them like a unit of troops and applied each process to each model in turn, when I got back to the first model it was dry enough to go onto the next stage.

Please do try this method on your Charlie Foxtrot Models builings. If you keep the paint thin and it does go wrong, it will be easy to overpaint and try again. Good luck.