Here’s my quick, easy and dirty way to get plastic to look more like wood.   Here were attacking the interior of three wagons, two Hornby and one Bachman.   Most of the ideas were nicked off various YouTube tutorials and demonstrations of various products.  One important thing is that this will give a grain to the finish, so identify which way this is running (usually along the length of a plank) and your brushstrokes should be in that direction.

First, here’s what we start with.  The interior of a Bachman 8 plank P.O. wagon, which has been manufactured in a shade of olive drab.  Makes a change from red oxide or chocolate brown (I’m looking at you, Hornby).

Give the interior a coat of a light tan (in this case, humbrol 121).

Using a flat Hog’s hair brush (introduced to my by an artist friend, who also commented when seeing the paint drawer ‘haven’t you got any cheery colours?’), dry brush with a dark earth brown and a light grey (humbrol 28&29).  As mentioned, drybrush in the direction of the grain.

Finally treat it with a grey wash (in this case humbrol dark grey) and remove the excess with a cotton wall bud.  Don’t rush the removal, else the original paint may start to show through (as seen on the Armstrong Whitworth 4 planker.  This is going to end up as a runner/tender for a L&Y pug, so those bits will get covered in bags of coal and ‘stuff’).  Certainly those ejector pin marks need hiding.

A variant, for a more bleached look, omit the dry brush stage and go straight to the wash.  You can also vary the degree to which the wash is removed, as the war flat behind the lowmac shows.  The lowmac has also had rust from the steel beams in the deck spread to the timbers.

Anyway, quick, easy and I think it’s not too bad. It’s certainly an improvement on the original.

Owain