highlighting wood grain molded into repianted plastic

[Professor J. Cogsworthy]

I've got a plastic "Pirates of the Carribbean" blunderbuss pistol that I'm repainting for a
friend. It has a cheesy pseudo wood grain molded into the "wooden" sections of the stock.

One of these actually..... ( I took the orange ring off the barrel. )



It's not very convincing but it is what I have to work with. I think it is supposed to represent
a very open grained oak.... like red oak....?    Not what I would choose for a gun stock.

I spray painted it black and repainted the gun. Now the wood looks even more plastic
that it did before. I'm not so much interested in aging and distressing it as I am in
just subtly making the faux wood grain stand out so that I do not have a solid even
brown for the 'wooden' pistol grip/stock. ( the silver parts of the gun are now gold/brass )

How should I do that? ( hopefully with paint I already have on hand....? )

I can take a picture if you need one.....

[bmgillies]

I'd shade it using a wash (a watered-down darker tone) and then dry-brush some highlights on.

[zilegil]

Yes. A wash and a drybrush would work very well. Just remember to rub off pretty much all the paint when drybrushing. It's very easy to have too much paint.

Hope I help.

[Captain Braid]

An old forgers trick (and I'm not going to tell you how I know this) was to take Brown shoe polish (the rub on kind not the liquid) and gently apply it to the grain of the wood. Then with a clean cloth remove the excess.
I see no good reason why this could not be tried on a plastic grain as long as care is taken on the application.

[bmgillies]

An old forgers trick (and I'm not going to tell you how I know this) was to take Brown shoe polish (the rub on kind not the liquid) and gently apply it to the grain of the wood. Then with a clean cloth remove the excess.
I see no good reason why this could not be tried on a plastic grain as long as care is taken on the application.

One problem I could see is the polish rubbing off onto things and marking them. That method works so well on wood because the polish gets absorbed, whereas on plastic it will just sit on the surface.

[Captain Braid]

bmgillies, you are absolutley correct sir.

Due to the effects of advancing years I have omitted to suggest sealing with Testors Dullcoate, a very matte finishing varnish and obtainable in small "250ml" Spray Cans.

[bmgillies]

bmgillies, you are absolutley correct sir.

Due to the effects of advancing years I have omitted to suggest sealing with Testors Dullcoate, a very matte finishing varnish and obtainable in small "250ml" Spray Cans.

Ah, well in that case it should work rather well indeed!