Thanks Alby!
I have been distracted by the garden these last few days, getting to that time of year again, thankfully! However, I do now have the "wood" done on the cockpit decking For those looking for ideas on how to do it, here is how I do it for small areas such as these.
First, a coat of CDL, or any other light beige colour... (I used Misterkit Acrylic RFC CDL)
The second step involves the following: acrylic "leather", thinner, and a wide brush..
I dip the brush in the thinner, then the paint, and use a piece of scrap plastic to test it on to see that it's not too thin and covers as I want it If it's too thin it will pool on highlights and run around corners on props or struts leaving dark blobs....too thick and it won't be translucent enough to give the right effect - just a matter of practice (and it took me 3 efforts to get this acceptable on these!) The trick is to do very thin coats and add more if necessary, advice I often find hard to follow myself! Don't try to work the paint as you would oils, it will cause dark streaks and/or remove too much paint leaving dark streaks and bare patches. Just make one, even, pass of the brush from one end to the other.
It's still a little darker than I would like but it's acceptable.
Stage 3...
Again, apply with thinner on the brush first and don't add too much...and you should end up with a reasonable (in 1:72) wood effect
Once it's tidied up around the edges by the surrounding colours that should look ok.
In other news, I have removed the ailerons (all 10 of them) and am preparing those for pinning and reattaching
Thanks for looking in!
Ian
PS does anyone know why some of my pics are now coming out bigger? They are all the same size on the other forum I post on, and the settings are the same for all of them. It only started doing this recently and I would like to stop it if I can!