Here I am painting the shovel, axe, etc., handles again. I’ve done it over and over. [%-)]I can’t ever seem to get the wood handles looking right [to me]. So I’m going to try fishing for ideas. So, how do ya’ll finish the wood handles? What paint/colors do you use? How do you apply your finish? WWII axis and allied. Any help would be a great help.
[:D] hi i use hombrol # 100 for my tool handels its a red brown ,and if you do a wash it looks not bad.[:D]
I felt the same way, now I substitute the plastic handles for real wood using matchsticks and tooth picks etc, then paint them with thinned acrylic, check the tools, and jacking block on the Panther ll below:
Steve
Steve- do you whittle them down with a knife? How do you do curved handles for things like axes?
The exact colors are not particularly important, since it is wood. I paint mine first with a tan base coat. I brush on the paint, and then re-brush as the paint gets tacky, intentionally putting in fine brushmarks. The brushmarks become wood grain. Then I wash over with a darker brown wash. This highlights the brushmarks, giving a reasonably scale grain effect. I might use some dark brown pastel chalk to simulate dirt and grime, as well as to simply give a bit of color variation. The technique is not difficult and gives a pretty decent effect.
Andy
I paint mine with a tan basecoat, then a very thick wash of red brown. After that, possibly I’ll wash with a very thin black, and they look fine to me.
I paint mine with a black undercoat, then a leather/red brown drybrush, then even I take a 003 brush and paint the handle with a sand colour/tan… seems to simulate the grain of the wood… the black undercoat brings out the red brown in the best way IMHO
Jason,
Yes I do wittle a bit and carve the more complex shapes like axe handles, the wood is soft and plyable (matchsticks). All you need to do is soak them in warm water and you can almost bend them into a circle. It is fun, and takes the drudgery out of detailing the tools. Probably my least favorite task when finishing is painting tools. I also got a pretty decent effect on the shovel on the Panther by using SNJ metallizing powder to the gunmetal on the blade, check it out:
Steve[:)]
I have heard that pioneering tools were sometimes not removed when the tank was painted. Therefore they would have the same colour/camo as the rest of the tank. I prefer painting them, but it’s all up to accuracy or what looks good on your shelf.
I’ve seen them both ways.Just like the argument about the fire ex. on German vehicles. I’ve seen them both ways.My dad’s cousin was in the 3rd AD and has some great color shots of the last few months in Germany.I tried to get them when he passed but no luck.Man I’d love to look through those again…Anyway I like to paint them just give a bit of a break up.JMHO
I don’t know how other countries’ armys did it, but the good ole US of A painted everything that didn’t move a flat-to-semi-gloss OD color. I joined our local Army National Guard unit in 1964. It had been a tank company in Korea and changed to a Combat Engineer company in the late 50’s. Every hand tool I ever saw, then, in the Army was painted that way–including the metal parts such as hammer heads, shovel & pick heads, etc. This paint was a heavy pigmented oil-based paint that ’ wore ’ very well. In all the training I went through at Ft. Jackson and Ft. Leonard Wood, I never saw or used a tool that had clear coated handles. Even our tent poles were painted that OD color. And it was hell to get off of your hands, even using gasoline as a solvent. Before desert camo came into vogue, all field equipment was that color—vehicles, tents, desks, chairs, uniforms, power tools and the air hoses for the air-powered tools— EVERYTHING. Except the name tapes on our fatique uniforms, which were white cloth tape with black lettering. After I enlisted, our name tapes were changed to OD with black lettering. [:D]
Tinker-I heard that eggs and toast were also OD’d.
Starting with the M26, US Armor didn’t have much external storage for pioneer tools. There are some exceptions, obviously, but like all tankers we kept our tools in the sponson box. We sometimes painted the wooden handles OD or black for inspection purposes, but, for the most part, a workin’ tank crew would have worn off that paint pretty quick. I remember getting replacement tools with bare wood handles, just like out of the hardware store, and I’ve seen them painted too. There are some photos of WWll allied and German armor with camo or OD painted tools as well, pick your poison, it’s just a matter of preference. If you look in the photo below, the ball peen by my foot is natural wood, and the breaker bar in my hand has a chrome finish.
For a Tank model in 1/35th scale, if you paint over the tools on the exterior the model looks toy like, IMHO. I think those little external details make the visual difference in modelling, so I make it a point to pay attention to them.
Steve
[:O] Wow! I’ve got a lot of expermenting to do. I’m pulling out the spares box to try out all of your methods on my spare tool handles. I’ll show you in a few days how it turns out. Thanks to all of you for your help.
I use Model Masters acrylic wood color as a base coat. Then I give it a thin coat of red-brown color. I use pastels to give the wood a grimy, used look.
TigerII
Hey trowlfazz.
Individually, the eggs and toast may have started out as OD, but when they were mixed in your mess kit as SOS they turned a sickly grey. [dinner][yuck][yuck] [#oops][#offtopic
I use model master wood then weather the handle with a little reb brown depending on how old I want it to look.
As far as pioneer tools today, most of the wood ones do not get painted, we mask it off and paint the metal parts of the tool, this is usually done for inspections and recovery after we come out of the field. Every now and then I’ll find one totally painted. This is usually from the crew not masking it off or just being a bit too paint happy. It wears off the next time it gets used, so no harm.
Thanks again to all. I’ve settled on the red/brown wash over the tan. Then a little pastel and I like the results. Problem solved. [party] I’ll post pictures when I finish the Luchs