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Ever since I've been modelling, there has been one unwritten rule – no WWI aircraft. When I was a nipper it was probably because WWI was obviously an inferior world war and not as good as the proper one – I did Top Trumps, I know these things. This time around it has been because of the joint horrors of rigging, and transmuting plastic into wood using only the power of paint. I've grown up now (mostly) and it's finally time to put those demons to rest. If I'm particularly concerned about one part of the build I like to tackle it as soon as possible. As I can't rig the thing before I've built it, my next major concern is making a reasonable stab at the prop. I don't know if you have seen the work of a modeller going by the name of 'Bughunter'. He's a proper modeller and does remarkable things like make laminated real wood props. Obviously, not being a proper modeller I don't expect to end up with anything like he makes. True to form, I only have one type of wood laminate available, so I did a few experiments - using Tamiya XF-64, XF-52 and a darkish brown oil wash to colour the alternate layers. I've got a shed full of carpentry tools, but when I do the wood worrying, it's usually on furnitury sized stuff, none of those tools were suitable. So I carved (with a scalpel), filed, sanded and scraped the prop, I then used mineral oil to darken the wood a little and then splashed on a mix of 50% of X-26 (clear orange) and 50% X-35 (semi-gloss clear) to give a varnished look. Not perfect but I'm quite please for a first attempt. I might have another go if I can be bothered. I'm feeling quite smug because I've managed not to make a total hash of something else: Watching those 'how to paint wood' vids paid off, but I made two changes. Before I painted I filed the plastic to give it more of a grainy texture (only filed it because my coarse sand paper is in the shed and that would mean I would have to get off me rear end and walk further than the kettle). I haven't got the yellow ochre oil paint that was suggested as a base, so I used XF-55. In the morning I put smears of my available brown oil paints on a piece of cardboard, as someone on another site suggested (so the paint dries faster). After three hours there was a linseed oil slick around each blob. It then had a none to perfect coat of the lightest brown, then four hours later (testing it every two minutes to see if it was dry) I used my most scraggy brush to apply the other two browns quite sparingly. After that, I scraped it lightly with a small wire brush in the direction of the grain. I'll probably put some thinned X-26 (clear orange) on it when it's completely dry. There's a couple of other much smaller woody things, but that's the big bits out of the way. Anyway, if any of you are still awake and can stand another instalment, I'll see you next time. Thanks for looking - comments welcome Gorby