I like the effect of wood grain on things like banner poles or the floor of a chariot or even on the house I make for terrain pieces but I’m not a good enough painter to paint it on. I tried a few methods until I can upon this particular method. It takes about 10 minutes to do and is quite affective. So what do you need. First of is a piece of round sprue or plastic rod or what ever you want the wood grain on. Thenext is something to make the wood grain. You could try a sharp pointy thing like a compass needle but I’ve tried that and it doesn’t always work. (Depends on how steady your hands are. Mine are shocking.) So first pic is bits of sprue I used as example.

Second pic is the tool I use.

I got this saw from my local hobby store but Ive used fret saw blades (The thich ones not so bendy) to do the same thing. So what you do is run the blade along the sprue in a continuos motion to make the wood grain. Its better not to go too heavy but depends on the result you want. Heres an example. I went heavier than I usually do just so you can see the effect.

This really only works on thin strips say 1cm or ½ inch or less. So now to paint it. There are a couple of ways to do it. The fastest I find is to paint it black and then drybrush with Snake bite (or what ever your favourite wood color is) I water down the paint 1 for 1 and lightly dry brush. I do about 3 coats one after the other and go heavier towards the center. You can finish here or mix some bone in and do another coat. Making the center lighter gives it a more “realistic” look IMHO. Heres a couple of pics of the process.

The last pic has had a light wash of brown ink to redefine the grain. The Flat piece is a bit of sprue. I have used 5 or six of these to make a chariot platform or a door. Just glue them to a flat piece of plastic after you have done the grain and then paint them all at once as above. And that’s it takes 10 minutes tops.