Making Britannia Metal Look Like Wood

[JimM]

My attempts at achieving a wood like finish on Britannia metal sucks. I usually just use burnt umber with a little black. Does anyone have any suggestions?

 

[AllanKP69]

Thoroughly clean the surface, apply a metal primer like Tamiya fine grey or white primer then several light coats of artist acrylic or enamel paint that you have mixed to match the wood tone you want.
Allan

 

[JimM]

Thanks @AllanKP69. Can you add grain to the finish?
Jim

 

[Y.T.]

If someone would ask me, the initial Britannia metal steering wheel does not look good. It is out of scale with over thick round wheel piece. May be it could be fixed with filing off the out of scale features but.. if not possible, I would not use it. I would replace it with something looking closer to a real wheel.

 

[AllanKP69]

Can you add grain to the finish?

Not saying it is right or wrong, but at our scales you really should see no grain anywhere as it would be way out of scale.
Allan

 

[Na Daeyong's Apprentice]

Honestly, at that scale, woodgrains wouldn’t be very visible. To my eye, the biggest problem is that it looks like a casting, not a wood structure. Before applying paint, I’d take a file and smooth down that surface as much as possible. If you have a rotary tool with some fine heads, you can even trim down some of those internal areas.

Once done, spray it with primer like Allan said, preferably white or gray. Choose a good wood color (I would go with a duller, lighter color) that you can spray for a more even coat. If you really want some wood grains, you can try using some black or brown enamel wash to get some color variation, or just engrave some fine lines using an Exacto knife.

 

[JimM]

Thanks @Na Daeyong's Apprentice