Realistic Wood Effects – AK Interactive Book Review

What is Realistic Wood Effects? – This book is an entry in AK Interactive’s Learning Series which is up to fifteen entries (and growing!) at the time of writing.  Learning Series books are smaller and cheaper compared to other books that AK Interactive publishes.  And to be clear, I mean cheaper in price, not necessarily in photo quality or overall finish of the book.  The Learning Series also tackles a specific topic within our hobby in under 100 pages so its svelte and won’t take up too much room on your bookshelf which is nice.

What does it contain? – Realistic Wood Effects is almost entirely tutorials.  Here are the guides provided with a quick thought on each from me as well:

Wooden Barrels – Great introduction to painting wood and this guide is useful to pretty much anyone other than pretty experienced painters.

Wood Tools – Focuses on larger scale wood tools you’d see on a scale model vehicle.

What’s in the box – A quick look at how to weather wooden boxes.  This is much less of a tutorial than others in the book.

Wooden cart – A nice demonstration of how to paint a weathered wooden cart you might see on a farm. This is an example where predominantly AK Interactive paints are used as well.

Timber door chipping – Also not much of a step-by-step but the end result looks good.

Wood fence weathering – This is pretty similar in final results to the previous guide so maybe a little repetitive.  It does show how you might texture balsa wood for a diorama or scratch build which is nice to see.

Weathered planks – Another take on the same topic only this time you scrape paint off using a razor.  I think this is probably the least useful of the three.

Cracked fence – This guide looks pretty handy and involves chipping fluid.  It is something I’m excited to try in the future.  I think this would be great for modern and post-apocalypse painters.

Boat in a River – Shows how to make a simple wooden boat with heavily damaged/weathered paint.

Over the deck – Demonstrates how to paint the wooden deck on a battle cruiser.  If you paint modern naval stuff, I would think this is pretty useful.  It probably isn’t nearly as useful for other hobbyists.

Wooden hull painting – Somewhat similar to boat in a river but this tutorial is for a less weathered boat.

Wooden shingles – Pretty much exactly what you’d expect.  This could be useful for fantasy/medieval painters in particular.

Wood propellers – How to paint wood grain lines on propeller planes.  This is another one that will either appeal to you or it won’t.

Who is this for? – This book appeals to scale modelers more than people who paint for wargames.  Unless I’m mistaken, many of the items are larger scale than 28mm/32mm.  Some of the topics like boats and airplanes are clearly in a larger scale too.  If you work on scale models from the 1900’s and up, I think you’ll find plenty here that is useful.

That isn’t to say there isn’t value for wargamers here.  The general information on wood is well done and useful, especially if you’re newer to the hobby.  I’ve painted my fair share of wooden things and knowing how to paint a simple barrel definitely sets you up to do many other wooden objects successfully.  If I had to pick what kind of wargamer would enjoy this book the most, I think it would probably be someone interested in historical wargaming, particularly WWII.  There are some good tutorials for fantasy painters but probably not enough to justify purchasing this book.

Closing Thoughts – That is the challenge with Realistic Wood Effects.  It tries to cover as many different topics as possible but I don’t know that it is a perfect fit for any hobbyist.  For example, I wouldn’t say that if you paint WWII era battleships that this book is a must buy because there is really only one tutorial in here that you’re sure to use and the same is true for scale model planes.  So everyone’s mileage with this book will vary. My hope that the information on what the book contains helps you make an informed decision.  For most readers, this book will have at least some tutorials of interest and since it is reasonably priced, I think that it is a book that hobbyists will like, even if it never becomes the most useful one in their library