Painting Wood
Wood can be found in a variety of ancient and medieval armor and weapons, in particular wooden shields, the wooden shafts of spear, pikes and polearms, and the wood used in short or long bows and their arrows. Painting realistic wood can also come in handy when creating your camp or buildings for use in built-up areas. Here are collected tips on painting wood:
Joe Mann: Chestnut to lighter brown base, dark brown wash. If there is no wood texture molded in, I detail some black/dark brown lines in th direction I think the grain should go with my finer/finest brushes, or with a splayed
brush so I just get pigment on individual hairs (watch out where the stray
hairs are!)
Anonymous: Well, I use a fairly simple technique for
wood. First, I use black spray primer. Then I drybrush on a dark
brown, followed by a lighter drybrush of a lighter brown. Sometimes I
use browns that are mixed with a bit of gray, which gives a sort of
"aged" look to whatever I'm painting. And of course, different browns
can be used for different woods. In general, I try to keep my browns
fairly dark, as it seems that wood that exposed to the elements tends to
look darker than freshly-cut wood.
Blaze: For doors that have good texture or board markings showing that it's a wooden door, I like to use a dark under coat (primer), dark brown, then dry brush lighter shades of brown until I get the affect I like. You can also make the wood look weathered doing this. Or you can paint it a shade of brown you like
and then wash it with a black wash. You can use this same method with your tree
trunks/branches also.
Dan Dionne: The techniques I use depend heavily on the casting. If the wood grain is done in good relief, I use a dark brown undercoat, a yellowish
drybrush, and finish with a medium brown wash. If the grain isn't
really represented in the casting, drybrushes and washes don't work very
well. You can create a grain effect on the surface by using an old
chisel-shaped brush, poking it into the paint to get a "spiky" effect,
and then painting a single stroke very lightly. I would use a lighter
undercoat in that case, with a darker topcoat.
Richard Dewsberry: Best tip - go out and _look_ at wood.
Most of it will be painted - I wonder why? If we paint our doors, wagons
etc., etc., might they have done so in the past? If it's not painted, look at what colour it is. A nice chocolate brown? The colour of tanned leather? Almost certainly not. Some of it will have been creosoted, or treated, and it'll be very dark. Some of it will have weathered and aged exposed to the elements, untreated - chances are, this
will be grey. Now apply what you've seen to your painting. Start with the dark shades
and work up to the light highlights if that's your technique, or paint a
base shade then add shadows with ink. But remember the colour you saw.
Carl Taylor: Dry brushing up from a dark colour is the best way, especially for doors. Although when building terrain I tend to use model wood which has a grain itself so it doesn't need painting. A single sheet can last quite a while
if your just using it for doors, shutters, etc.
David Howard: Here's my technique:
- Prime as desired (I prefer black)
- Paint the wood area in light tan through brown. don't go too dark.
- Stain with dark brown, or black if using dark brown base.
- Drybrush with very light tan, with some yellow to keep it from getting
too bland.
Consider using some blue to darken the brown.
Top of Page | Newbies Guide | DBA Resource Page
Last Updated: Feb. 5, 1999
Comments, questions and additions welcome. Send them to Chris Brantley at brant@erols.com.