Paints labelled as stains behave unlike opaque shades. They are translucent, so the texture underneath still shows and the result resembles a wood stain rather than a coat of colour. That makes them the tool for planking, gun stocks, cabin woodwork and worn leather. The final tone depends on how many coats you lay down, not on the shade in the tin, so a single bottle covers a surprising spread of timber. Translucency is also what makes a stain useful away from timber: one thin pass darkens worn leather, dulls a canvas tilt or shifts a metal part without hiding the detail underneath. The same layering logic, with a far longer working time, belongs to oil paints for modelling, and the flat shapes that lay a stain down in a single stroke are in brushes for model painting.
