Woodgrain with Vallejo

[BloodFather of Kharnath]

I've got a couple of woodgrain surfaces to tackle in the near future. Some have the grains sculpted, others do not. I suppose I am not even asking for good wood grain per se, but realistic wood in general. I have some paints that may be useful for this. I have vallejo natural wood and vallejo wook grain-not a spelling error by me. The latter is transparent. So should I put the natural down, which is kind of yellow piney, and then Put the transparent over it? And would I do the complete opposite for an object with grain sculpted on? That would be put down the darker wood grain, then dry brush the lighter natural wood on top?

Or should I just ignore these paints and stick with the tried and true method of painting a darker brown and then putting squiggly lines of various brown over top of it? I've done this with semi success in the past, but Is think that the VMC line is designed for wood and so should look great. Any thoughts on this? I have searched and there just isn't much on VMC wood grain and natural wood. I'll attach a good pic of what Id like later, but you all know what good wood grain looks like...

 

[MAXXxxx]

I'd say mostly ignore.
The woodgrain-transparent is a really good color IF you want that exact one on the woods.

What worked for me more or less (for sculpted one):
base of a reddish brown (bestial brown), then a wash of devlan-mud, and badab-black. Then a few drybrushes / layers with the base color, then a few with a bit of green and more and more yellow in it (basically mixed in a bit of camo-green, then lightened the color with bonewhite / ivory. I purposefully overhighlight it. then again a few controlled washes of devlan/badab depending on how strong contrast I'd like to see.

for painted on ones... (I may have done one or two, but not enough):
- paint a base brown
- draw thin lines in a brighter brown, then thinner ones in an even more light one, then a few with a dark color
- when the lines look about ok, then shade it with devlan / smoke
- if needed rehighlight a few lines, that disappeared in the shadows

And a color I really like for woods: VMC-greenbrown. I used it on the terrain for the nemesis terrain (here simply greenbrown base, then devlan wash, nothing more). I really like how the color looks like there.

ohh and weapons like the lacquered look, so they usually get at least a satin varnish if not a gloss one from me.

what I used as ref:
- few painting magazines (I wanted to say gameforces, but I can't find an article there now)
- article from the CMON book, specifically this one: http://www.coolminiornot.com/articles/1487-painting-woodgrain-on-a-smooth-surface
- scale75's video is also good: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftXB_KBJVuE

a tool like here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Oe2HdxiolM would be great in the mini-scale. Not sure if doable, as most of the wooden parts are in hard to reach areas.