Friday, October 5, 2018

New video: How to paint a realistic WW1 wooden propeller

The Wingnut Wings Fokker continues, and in my latest video I show you how I've painted the laminated wooden propeller. I've taken a little artistic license here - technically it should be something like seven layers thick, not three, but you get the idea. It looks good to me, and it looks like real wood.



How to paint realistic laminated wooden propellers for WW1 aircraft scale models


It's a very simple technique. Basically it involves a base layer of lightish acrylic paint, and then a further layer of darker raw umber acrylic.

The magic happens when you cover that with washes of burnt umber oil paint. This gives the wood its richness and tonal variation.


How to paint realistic laminated wooden propellers for WW1 aircraft scale models

How to paint realistic laminated wooden propellers for WW1 aircraft scale models


What I love about this technique is that it is incredibly forgiving. If you stuff something up, it is tremendously easy to wipe it away and have another go, and another go, until it looks good to you.

The video is embedded below, but in case that doesn't work here is the link:
How to paint realistic wooden propellers for WW1 aircraft

Cheers,

Dave





3 comments:

  1. That's uhhh.... boss!
    I love painting wood effects on my models and use a very similar technique (although I do go for the slightly thicker oils with a stiff, dry brush dragged through them to create grain effects.
    I only thing I'd add is that it's important to remember that actual scale grain effect in the types of wood used on aircraft is almost impossible to achieve: even in 1/32 your eyes would barely be able to pick out individual grain patterns and certainly not in 1/48 or 1/72. What matters is that it *looks* like grainy wood. It's a subtle optical illusion that you've pulled off beautifully here. Great job.

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  2. Looking very natural!
    Welle done and thanks for the tuto!

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  3. Thank you for sharing your techniques!!! Really looks like wood!!

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