I have noticed that Aeroscale makes wood panel decals for aircraft such as the Albatros. Are these decals convincing in 1/48, or is it better to attempt it in paint? I have always been primarily an armor modeller, but I recently picked up an Eduard Albatros & want to give it a go.

The wood grain bodies have fascinated me for quite a while. Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Here's an alternative.
I did it just with an airbrush free hand. I like the affect.
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/155/352638636_f7cbc741cd_b.jpg

Cheers,

Hugh

PS, you might have to copy paste that link into you browser address bar in order to see the image...
... Sorry!

That is very nice looking, I like the effect. What type of paint and color did you use?

Hi Kriegshund

Welcome to Aeroscale - great to have you with us.

I'm not a big fan of wood-grain decals, because they are seldom printed in a sufficient range of tones to match the subtlety of wood. The most effective I've seen are home-made decals using a scan of real wood.

But here's another easy method for painting woodgrain.

All the best

Rowan

Hey Kriegshund,
I sprayed a coat of Tamiya Desert yellow darken with about 10% red brown and then took some red brown and darkened that up with a few drops of black.
Then I thinned the darkened brown right down and truned the airbrush and compressor right down to almost nothing.
I highlighted the panel joins first and then randomly ran streaks along the direction of the wood grain. I was running the airbrush very close to the subject (about 10-15mm). I just kept doing that until I had an affect that I liked.
A guy on HS felt that I should do a coat or two of tamiya clear yellow over the top to brighten it up a bit, but I like the lighter shade.
Unfortunately, the best bit of "grain" got covered by the serial number decal... Nevermind.

Good luck.

Thank you for the igreat nformation gentlemen, and thank you for the welcome.

I kind of suspected the decal method sounded too good to be true. Now I will have to pick up a few more kits and try these methods out. Thank you again.

Greetings Kriegshund;

I can see the members have given you some sound advice. Essentially there are three methods for wood grain effect.

1. decals.
2. paint
3. doll house woods

Decals are my least favorite for wood grain. There is one single exception. Detail Masters has a very impressive oak grain decal listed for 1/24 scale but goes great with 1/48.

For "painting the effect" most of you have seen my efforts so here is one from a fellow modeler. His build here is an Eduard Alb. D.III (OAW).