I’m working on my first laser cut wood model and I’m told to prime all surfaces before painting. What primer do I use and where is it available? Is normal, ACE Hardware, wood primer okay to use? Seems it would be too thick and ruin the delicate details.
I’ve used the cheap stuff ($1 per can) from Wal-Mart and have had no problems. Just keep the coat(s) light to avoid covering up details. I model in N scale.
Scott
Thanks… I though I’d ask as I don’t want to ruin my first attempt.
I have scratch built lots of wooden building , but i have never used a primer… I use the color I want the building to be as the base coat and if I want a second coat I can use the same color… One of the things I want in a wood building is for the detail of the wood to show and I would be concerned that to may coats of paint would stop this from happening…
the reason they say to primer all the sides is to prevent warping… If you do just one side this can happen… I usually assemble all the walls before i paint… I also glue on bracing on the inside to prevent any warping. Both these buildings are scratch built in N scale …
You can use most paints to prime the wood. If you’re going to otherwise paint the wood, or just going to stain it, don’t use a primer. There are some benefits to a natural-wood-colored paint undercoat/primer if you intend to show it through in places from under the final paint coat as in simulating weathered wood. Paint is useful when applied to both interior and exterior surfaces to limit/prevent warping. Still, I’d put more reliance on internal bracing which can be added by using suitably-sized stripwood if not already provided for in the kit.
Mark
Ditto. Painting both sides prevents warping.
Sue
I watched my friend here working on a small wooden structure…
On this building he wanted an old looked so he mostly used thin washes of paint. In some places he put an under coat of white paint and after that had dried he put his thin top coat on, letting the under coat of white show through.
He always was sure to paint the backside of a piece of wood and would sometimes, depending on how big the piece was, place a weight (book or whatever) on it and allowed it to dry. That helped to prevent warping. He didn’t use a brush but rather a small piece of clean, white cloth wrapped around his finger to apply the thin wash of paint. He would dampen the cloth in clean water then dab it into the paint and apply it to the wood. The main thing is to do the same to the reverse side.
below is another of his structures…
He mostly uses the cheap craft type water based paint found at Micheals, Hobby Lobby, Wall Mart etc.
Jarrell
Primer on new wood helps the following paint coats cover better and hide the grain of the wood. The softer wood grain will soak up more paint than the harder layers, which lets the grain show thru the paint. A coat of anything transparent, shellac, lacquer, varnish, or penetrating resin fills the pores of the softer grain layers and lets the top coat of paint cover and not show the grain.
This is really important on stuff like fir plywood. In actual fact the basswood used in craftsman kits has such fine and even grain that paints like floquil, pollyS, or craft store acrylics will cover just fine without a primer.
If you are going for a natural wood finish, say driftwood gray or creosote brown, then you want to apply the stain BEFORE doing a sealer.
You want to cover both sides of the wood. Otherwise it may warp. The primer serves as a water barrier. If you only do one side, then the un primered side can absorb or loose moisture to the air which can make the piece warp.
One thing I do is paint or stain every piece of wood before gluing and yes you need to paint inside and out to prevent warping plus blocking the inside walls is usually a good idea. I prefer stains over paint as even on real buildings paint fills in the wood grain leaving a more smooth finish. if you want that look build with styrene. Even at your local home center there are a ton of colored stains to choose from, you may have to thin it a little differently as you normally wood only because the types of wood used for craftsmen kits are typically more fibrous then milled lumber. A really good craftsmen kit builder showed me one of his little tricks where he uses the wood left over after cutting out the panels, parts what ever you want to call them to do test staining etc. being as it’s the exact same wood your structure is going to be made of the color match will be exact.
I never use primer and it always works fine.
On my wood structures I have been using a cheap gray spray paint available at Walmart - don’t remember the name off the top of my head - which works nicely. One of the benefits, depending on how weathered you want your structure to look, is once you get done with your primary color, lightly sand the structure so some of the gray shows through.
Dave [banghead]