by m3a1 » May 13th, 2017, 4:09 am
Well, if you like the look of the Walnut or Birch stock, there's a method for applying paint to look like wood grain. Home Depot even offers a kit for it but at $39 it's cost prohibitive considering this was meant to be done on the cheap.
Faux wood won't stand up to close scrutiny, of course, but as a general display item not meant to be handled and closely examined, I believe it would pass muster.
Even so, the real M14 wood stock had a reputation for not standing up to damp environments very well probably owing to its long, slender shape. As a result, synthetic stocks were also in use in Vietnam...in dark brown, black and even camouflage. Really doesn't matter...the whole effort is just to provide another thing to help display the M151 in its proper context.
I'm a long-time modeler so I may just pass on the effort to do the faux wood and simply paint mine with a Badger air brush as a synthetic stock version. Expecting good results with that as there is really a tremendous selection of model paints to choose from.
Actually, I'm glad you brought this up as I have finally taken a moment to look online at the pics of the USGI synthetic stocks. Surprise!, the knurling is actually part of the design of the USGI synthetic stocks so I can skip the step of sanding those off. But there is the nasty business of removing the rail system on mine which may just have more to do with keeping the two halves together than meets the eye. I may just leave it on there.