I have constructed hundreds of plastic structures. with no trouble. So, I thought that Laser Art Structure construction would be just as easy. MaYBE, i should have taken the instruction to paint small pieces of the Gingerbread Victorian home literally, and left the painting of the major walls until the structure had been glued together. When I painted the large sections of wood siding, they began to warp. and were very brittle when I tried to glue them together. Would the use of a white primer first have helped? I got a squeeze bottle of Titebond Wood Glue. Is there some better glue to use? Bob Hahn
Hi, Bob,
I built a few plastic kits some are easy, and some not so easy, but I build mostly craftman wood structures.Laser Art structures are very good kits, I have built at least a half dozen or so.
When building wood kits you must always put bracing on the back side of the large wall sections before painting. I also paint the very small parts before I glue it on the main building. Titebond wood glue is good, as any for wood structures
Sam
What happens with wood kits is expansion of the wood grain when you paint one side. The other unpainted side doesn’t expand, so the the piece warps. The solution is to paint both sides. I use extra interior bracing as well.
I learned this lesson a long time ago. I was putting together an unfinished furniture kit, 1:1 scale. The base was a wood disk, about 2 feet across. I’d stained the top, and before assembly I applied a coat of polyurethane. When I checked it a few hours later, it had warped severely. This piece of wood was 3/4 inches thick! I was able to flatten it out by applying polyurethane to the underside and then putting some weight on it, but it shows how much force can be exerted by this sort of thing.
HHPATH56
One commonly recommended method to avoid the warping is to prime the wall pieces on both sides with cheap rattle can non acrylic spray primer. I have used this method on several laser kits and have suffered no warping. The primer is not water based so it does not cause expansion in the wood, but when dry, it prevents the water from acrylic paints from soaking into the wood, thus preventing the warping. I have used at least two coats of the primer since one coat seems to almost disappear into the wood.
Interior bracing is also strongly recommended to keep the walls straight and sturdy.
Bar Mills Scale Models includes some excellent information on building wood kits with their models. They also have some interesting videos on their website.
http://www.barmillsmodels.com/
Dave
And remember to remove the paint where the joints get glued together, or you’ll just glue paint to paint, and you’ll have “brittle” buildings again.
Go to an art supply store (or a craft store) and buy a bottle of acrylic sealer. This is a thick, acrylic application which seals your wood (or other porous material), preventing water from entering and thus the wood from warping.
I have successfully painted all manner of wooden items using this stuff for a base coat, although primer works, too.