Hello, I mostly use this for doing wooden textures on miniature bases, but it can be applied to all sorts of other models. If you’re doing this on a plastic or metal mini that isn’t colored white, do all of the scratching and detailing first, then prime the miniature/model in white before applying the paint.

Tools needed:

Straight edge

Scribing tool, I use a Tamiya Scriber, you can use a large needle, anything with a sharp point.

A sharp Awl or spike of some sort.

Paint of your choice.

I’m starting with a piece of white polystyrene plastic, commonly used for modeling.

Skip this if you’re adding texture to an existing model.

Step 1: use your straight edge and scribing tool to make plank shapes in the plastic. The lines don’t have to be perfect but it depends on what effect you want.

Step 2: Use your needle/spike to scratch erratic lines into the plastic, following the direction you want the wood’s grain to go. It’s best to just go back and forth, try to avoid any uniform shapes and lines, I do it quickly so it looks sloppy.

Step 3: At this point there’s a number of things you can do depending on what this is for. If you’re making a wooden bridge or planks that are walked on, take some medium grit sandpaper and do a little sanding going horizontally against the grain, use your Awl/needle to make a couple horizontal scratches against the grain, this will make it look walked on and a bit more natural. If you want nails in the wood, I use flat head pins, drill some small holes and just slot the pins in with superglue.

Step 4: The last step is to apply paint, this is really simple, use a larger brush for this. I personally use Vallejo Model air colors for this technique, you can use pretty much anything you just want the paint thin enough that it doesn’t cover completely, the goal here is to apply paint so that the white of the plasticard/primer shows through the paint, this is what makes it look like faded and worn wood.

The color you pick should correspond with what type of wood you want, I’m using Vallejo Air “Dark Earth” for this one, it’s lighter and looks more like pine or cedar, you can use Vallejo Air “Tank Brown” or “Hull Red” for a darker, redder look.

When painting, just streak the paint up and down following the grain, try to avoid large globs of paint at the edges of the plastic. Let dry and voila.

After it’s finished you can go in and add more detail, do a black wash in the lines, use some washes to add dirt and grime and weathering, whatever you want really.

Another example: Flat head pins for nails, some washes in the lines for grime and dirt etc.