falsa

can anyone explain the process or point me to a site that will explain how to spray a falsa design on the whole board? thanks paul

…Airbrushing 101 covers it nicely.Herb

It really helps if you actually do balsa, the color is very muted with just hints of color grain. I do excellent falsa, have fooled many people from only inches away. It is knowing what the wood looks like and coming up with a technique to do the same. Practice, practice, practice.

yeah i heard that airbrushing 101 cover it quite well, but they dont import it over here so cant get a copy. so the best thing to do jim is to get a piece of balsa and try to copy the design? how do you get the line to go through it/knots in the wood? thanks paul

how to make people-fooling falsa paint: -spray two or three different hues of balsa-like base color (look at your piece of balsa and try to match the base color than make slightly dark and light variants) -if you want 2 reproduce panels trace them on the foam with a pencil and mask w/tape -fling a few drops of brown with a 4"brush (very light fling) and brush over them with a clean brush of the same size respecting the grain as your balsa panel -fling again with black (very little color & pressure on the brush) -fling with dark red -re-spray the base color from a yard just to cover lightly and give dimension -paint the knots with a brush and contour them with a pencil, trace the edges of the various panels with a pencil too try the whole process on some paper or anything but the clean-fresh-shaped-blank

sounds cool and good fun thanks will have to go practise

I try to use what ever flaws are already existing in the foam to accent the appearance. Tiny blow holes are filled with a darker paint using the finest tipped brush, then stroke across them with a wider stiff brush to get a knot and grain look. When I have finished adding those, I use an old tooth brush, dipped in darker paint and drag my finger over the bristles, flicking micro grains of paint onto the work, as I do this I use the stiff brush to streak those into grain lines. It is a matter of giving it the go and seeing what your result will be, I don’t rely on airbrushing, just to laying down the base color.