We thought just the same as yourself and were not taken by the burnt wood effect, but its a good job I personally didn't have to paint it, otherwise it would have been a basic all over colour, wood and metal I can work with, paint, unfortunately not, lol
I have cut the sides for the larger station now that we are very happy with the result from this one. The book although doesn't give every detail of every size and cut etc, it gives enough of a rough size and hint of what you can do, perfect I would say, enough to help, but not too much to turn it into a tracing the parts type build.
Once the station is complete (weeks away yet) then we might have a go at some rolling stock out of there too, who knows what will turn out
