I am going to invest in a composite stock that will come in the raw and need to be painted or coated. Looking for preferred options, for material used, color, and patterns. Being a wood stock guy, I want this to be conservative, no camo, no colors other than natural earth tones, basically look similar to a wood stock or similar.
Looking for examples and experiences in this area.
Faux bois is what you're talking about. I used to do a bunch of work like this, but I never did it with a gun stock. I used to take scrap wood or painted wood or even particle board and put a faux wood grain texture on it. It was easy to do, but the trick would be finding the right paint.
You start with a flat paint. I remember a light brown for walnut finish. I used a pumpkin orange for mahogany. Once that was dry, I used a glaze. Raw umbre was one of them-- I think for walnut. Here's where the trick comes in. First you paint it on, and then go back and run a stiff brush over it and make the grain. As you remove the glaze, the underlying flat coat comes through. Finish with polyurethane.
There are youtubes now that teach this. Remarkably, I learned from my father. Dad was by no means an artist, but Mom found some mauled-up wood furniture and he spent the winter one year down in the basement painting the stuff up for my bedroom. I still have all the pieces scattered throughout the house, and the finish on most of them is still quite good. When I went off on my own, I found the technique was great for junk furniture, and once my friends saw it, I did a bunch of it for them.
I've used Krylon Fusion on several shotguns and camo'd them up for turkey hunting. Krylon Fusion is the shizz. After painting a base coat (usually desert tan) I take sprigs of cedar and use them as a stencil and just spray splotches. I work in front of a box fan, sucking the air off the work surface. It causes the paint to dry quickly. I can spritz on a few splotches, change cedar sprigs and paint can, and spray on a few more. I keep doing this until I have layer-upon-layer of these and the pattern looks like you could fall into it.
Bubbba Paints His Turkey Gun