Wooden deck on the fantail of Loren Perry's 1934 Arizona, built from the
Revell 1/429 kit

PAINTING WOODEN DECKS: Painting plastic decks to appear like wood has long
been a challenge to modelers. I've tried a number of methods over the years
with vatying degrees of success. Here's an easy technique I used on both of
my 1/429 scale Revell Arizona kits with satisfying results: First, the
paints you'll need are sold at model railroad shops. Three colors are all
that's necessary. All three are made by Floquil, the same firm that produces
the excellent series of Marine Colors now in vogue among plastic ship
modelers.

One of the three colors is a paint, the other two are from Floquil's range
of model "stains". They are: 1. "Mud" (a model railroad weathering paint),
2. "Driftwood" (a light gray stain), and 3. "Walnut" (a brown stain.) The
entire process can be boiled down to four simple steps:

* 1. Airbrush the deck with Mud.
* 2. Streak the deck with Driftwood.
* 3. Streak the deck with Walnut.
* 4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 as necessary.

This method is, fortunately, very simple and very forgiving. First one must
airbrush the deck with Mud and allow it to dry at least 24 hours. In fact,
this will be the very first color painted on the entire model - the grays,
blacks, and other colors come after the deck has been prepared first. Once
the Mud paint has dried, select your smallest tipped brush and open the
bottle of Driftwood. You then dip the brush into the stain and then wipe the
tip of the brush lightly over a paper towel until only a small amount of wet
stain remains in the bristles. Now use the brush to streak the stain in
narrow strips lengthwise along the deck (or parallel to the planking). Use
random strokes until the deck is evenly streaked over is entire surface.
When finished (the stain dries very quickly), open the Walnut stain and
repeat this step. If the deck appears too dark, repeat the streaking process
with the Driftwood until the deck starts to lighten up. If you want the deck
to return more to the shade of the Mud paint, streak the deck with Mud in
the same manner as the stain. By alternating back and forth between these
three colors, you'll find you have great control over the final appearance
of the model's wooden decks. And so long as you keep the stains and paint
nicely thinned, there will be no visible buildup of pigment to obscure
detail. And remember to keep the brush strokes about the width of a plank,
or no more than two planks.

Some advantages of this technique: A. no great artisitic skill is necessary,
only the ability to apply random paint streaks in parallel lines; B. a
damaged area can easily be blended into the rest of the deck by applying
more strokes in alternating colors as above; C. the process goes quickly -
one Arizona model had its deck fully painted and streaked in about an hour
(after the original Mud application had dried, of course.) A tip: purchase
an inexpensive kit to use as your "guinea pig". Use this kit's parts to test
your technique and refine it before you move onto your main project. You'll
find, as I did, that the final appearance of your model's planked deck looks
exceptionally convincing, both in photographs and to the viewer seeing it on
display.

Loren Perry - Gold Medal Models