could someone please give me some tips for painting Balsa wood. i've tried multiple times but it always looks weird

by 'tips' i mean could someone share----what paints they use
--how to apply them
--and (if possible) pictures

currently i'm trying to paint balsa wood pieces that will go with osgiliath ruins, but ways to paint orc scaffolds, rohan buildings, etc.... would be appreciated

In short. Do a couple of brown washes, this soaks into the wood nice and the extra water will raise the wood grain, giving you more texture. Then do a couple of increasingly light drybrushes. Done. I am going to paint some wood up for a ruin sometime soon, so hopefully I can get some pictures up for you in the next couple of days....

Right so your wanting a wooden effect right?

The way I go is first of all scratch the wood with this: Sorry not a clue what to call it.. .. and personally I'd just say a metal hairbrush. ... .... so yeah. .. .



Then I use a coat of Commando K, along with a wet brush of Fortress gray and finally a black wash to get into the wood grain. This gives a sort of weathered beach wood effect if enough gray is applied. Highlights can then be applied after with lighter colours. I'll try and get some pictures up later, don't have any right now I'm afriad. Hope that help's a little.

Drum

thanks for the replies and i will totally try those suggestions

Yes, as drum said it's also good to make the grain a bit deeper and more pronounced with wire brushes. Here's some pics from my wood painting.....
Before painting.

This is after just one thin layer of paint...There will be some drybrushes yet to help blend in the darker edges from where the black bled in, as well as just for normal highlighting / contrast reasons.

*Edit* And its done. I did a couple of drybrushes to tie it all together.




And a sign-post I did a while ago with the same techniques.

Model railroaders taught me a trick that I still use. They mix black ink and isopropyl alcohol into a spray bottle and spray the balsa wood. The alcohol evaporates and leaves the diluted ink wash looking just like aged wood. The amount of ink you use will determine how dark you want the wood to look. I would suggest that you mix small batches and do some testing until you find the mix you are happy with.
I also suggest that you cut the wood first, so that the edges are exposed to this ink wash. This save a lot of work later trying to match the color.

You can also use brown ink or any color really. I used red to make a barn that had been painted red and had become neglected. Worked a charm!!

avenger that is exactly how i wanted my balsa wood to look!!!! you said 'give it a couple of brown washes', by any chance did you use Devlan Mud (as that is the only "brown" wash i have). or did you just use a watered down version of some brown paint??? also what colors did you drybrush with?? and again thanks for all the suggestions

Yah, when I say wash, I just mean wattered down paint. I didn't use GW colours, but here's a picture of the colours I used.
The two GW colours at the bottom are scorched brown, then bestial brown. (from left to right) I didn't use these, they are for reference only.
I undercoated with one of the browns on the left, for the life of me I can't remember if it was the redder and slightly darker one or not, sorry!(It was only yesterday that I painted it too! ) I mixed one of those brown with a bit of black to make it darker, then mixed it about 50:50 with water, maybe a bit more water. Then I applied the brown. Once this was dry I drybrushed with the tan colour in the middle. (It's almost the same colour as bleached bone, but not quite. BB has more of a greeny hue, whereas this one is a little warmer and redder.) After that I did a light drybrush of the grey colour on the edges of the boards where they were broken. (GW probably have a comparable grey, this one is slightly blue-ish, and I've heard that some of GW's are to. Maybe try fortress grey?) Then I did a very very light drybrush of the ivory colour over everything, to tie it all together. At least that's what I'd like to think, I'm not sure if I actually got any colour onto the wood from the last drybrush, it was that light.


I hope that helps, sorry about not using GW paints. I just started out with the craft paint that my mom had, and have now slowly added some GW paint as needed, but I still use the cheap craft stuff for terrain, no use in using the expensive GW stuff.

Oh, and as a last note, I wash the wood with the initial dark brown rather than just painting it, so the natural grain and texture can come through. The brown will also soak into some parts of the wood more, and some less, giving it a slightly different colouring, which I like. Once you put the drybrushes over it it really helps to tie it all together, even if it looked a little wierd before. You might be able to tell that one of my boards soaked up a lot more than the others. One of the two middle ones.

thanks....lol and i don't use GW paints on terrain either (the cheap craft store stuff is the way to go for me )

Well then, here's the names of the paints, just in case: 'Delta Creamcoat' burnt sienna, autumn brown, and ivory. 'Folkart' settlers blue. 'Americana (DecoArt)' antique white. I have paint from lots of random companies, basically if it looks like a good colour, who cares who makes it.