yeah.. I believe they call it a 'bone' effect....
but maybe thats getting off topic? You mention WOOD in the title.. but the second reply mention tooth/bone (which is what I jumped on)
Well it's not off topic if your advice leads me to making a great fake tooth, least as far as I am concerned. Honestly no advice is bad advice save for on phrase and I think we all know what I'm about to quote,
"You suck! Give up you moron!"
That is the only thing that is bad advice, one it's rude, two to make something wonderfull at the end of a long process takes time, will and the ability to learn from your mistakes. Any artist who will give nothing but anger, hate, unhelpful and rude comments when they think they are above it are not artists.
Those fools who sit in a pristine white chair with a window behind them (It's Stereotyping at this point.) and complain that their gallery didn't make them a billion dollars opening day are not artists, they are only in it for money.
I know you are not one of them because you commented, trying to help a fellow artist who is just dipping their toes in the water of replica and wood work, it all helps if we share our knowledge, wisdom and more with our fellows.
Pardon me for the rant but I hate the stereotype of artists who have possibly inspired millions, are all "I couldn't of made it without my fans." and then they see the work of someone who got into art thanks to their inspiration only for said hero to say things like "Uninspired, simple, junk." for example when iCarly with Miranda Cossgrove was in it's first seasons and therefore good enough to watch there was one thing I hated everytime they showed up and one episode. The first was that stupid woman teacher who was more or less Professor Umbridge as a American school teacher, and the episode where the sculptor that Carly's brother looked up to get's to meet him, show his works to him and then be told they were amateur at best. I hated that episode as it is a reimagining of the a story my psychology teacher once told the class.
"One day at school, a young student and his class were in their art class, their teacher asked them all to draw the best house with a field and the sky in it.
everyone including the young boy began working on their pictures, the boy was having great fun adding just the right colors and detail his heart could must for one his age.
After a while the teacher collected the pictures, but when she got to the boy she saw he had drawn the grass blue, the sun was greenish yellow and the clouds were red.
She kept the boy after class and asked him why he drew it like that.
The boy said "It was fun, blue and red are my favorite colors."
The teacher told the boy that such colors were silly said it looked bad.
That boy never drew another picture again."
Harsh criticism is needed but no matter how bad something is you can and must give some encouragement, otherwise you shut someone out of somthing worth doing. Being a artist a Maker is something we all need some help now and again with, that's why we find good fellows to help us figure methods and help improve together.
If you want to achieve a bone effect with paint, just experiment using different mediums to see what works best for you. Try filling wood and then sanding to make sure it is ultra smooth. Paint is a base ivory color. Then use layers of thinned brown paint to build up desired look, and rub it in to achieve a nice effect. Try adding wax to the piece and buffing to give it a nice gloss. So many things to try, and I say just play around on scrap wood to see what works best.
I got plenty of scrap wood and I think some white paint I can give it a shot for sure hardest part I'd say will be the root of the tooth but eh I can find decent references for them and weathering is something I need to get down too for models not wand based.