Wescott, Wilson and other references don’t seem to address painting the L-grider bench work. But I seem to remember some mag articles saying to use a cheap latex. I suppose that would be for humidity or appearance. Maybe it was only for the subroadbed and up. Seems like time better spent on building quality roadbed, since the fascia or curtains hide the underside of a layout.
What is the consensus? (Since my next step with my purchased wood is to build or paint.) Thanks.
Hal
I would paint to seal the wood against humidity.
Since my layout is in the living room mine is flat back latex Cox 47
Option is an OUTDOOR stain, goes on quick, lasts forever. Bahr Siding stain is what I am going to use.
My $.02
If the wood is in a controlled environment the paint is optional. I think your only concern is aesthetics.
HI, donhalshanks.
Painting or staining usually winds up being a personal choice kind of thing. If your layout is located in a garage or un-heated, un-air conditioned building, you may want to consider a paint or stain to seal the wood from humidity. L-girder is pretty stable along its length, but humidity can affect warping, putting strain on your benchwork.
Usually with L-girder, the underlying benchwork is not seen. Unless your scenery doesn’t cover all the benchwork, painting it, as you say, is a waste of good modeling time. My personal preference is for painting or staining whenever the benchwork can be seen, even if you have to bend over to see it. I’m just that way. I also get some weird satisfaction from painting where no one can see it. I know it’s there, and on my railroad, it’s my opinion that counts.
My first N scale layout was done with box framing and I stained it a dark walnut color. I liked the looks of it. I never installed any curtains, so even the legs were stained. It looked more like furniture.
Final point: If you paint, use a good quality paint (not the MOST expensive, but good stuff, nonetheless). Cheap paint probably won’t cover uniformly and you’ll have to put on one or more coats to make it look good. Better quality paint means you can paint it once and get on to better things. Don’t forget ventilation if you’re painting indoors!
Have fun!
Darrell, returning to being quiet…for now
The humidity issue is real. I’m in a controled basement so I only painted what showed as part of a display issue. The rest I left plain and put the time in what I liked.
A coat of paint really doesn’t “seal” wood. Shellac is probably most effective against humidity (but ironically isn’t that effective against water).
I have painted the legs and lower, visible parts of the benchwork the fascia color (an olive green). I also paint the homasote surface a dirt brown color and the roadbed black, purely for esthetical reasons.
Dave H.
I painted all my benchwork black, because it was free - literally free paint that the previous owners left and I would NEVER use anywhere in the house. Over 2 gallons of the stuff. It sort of hides the legs. It’s been from winter dry to the peak of summer humidity now with no problems - not that I expect the foam to do anything. But then even with the wide swings of outdoor humidity, my basement never varies from a low of 50% to a max of 60%.
–Randy
I wasn’t going to, but my wife decided she wanted it painted because the layout is in the family room. I built the whole thing in the garage, and then dis-assembled it for moving to its real home. So, she stained it some dark wood color, and put on a coat of polyurethane, too. I’ll have to admit that it looks a lot nicer. Well, the dark wood is a nice contrast to all that pink foam, anyway.
I would agree on humidity as an issue, not sure how much on the benchh work but I have a small desk with drawers and before we turned on the central air, all the drawers were stuck/swelled shut, once the AC was constant, they un-swelled.
My question though, is how by painting will that stop the humidity from swelling it? There is going to be areas that didn’t get paint when being assembled?
I didn’t notice any issues with my layout, but I did a grid type with blue foam as the scenery base.
My layout benchwork is in an air conditioned room that stays around 78F. I really hadn’t put a lot of thought into it yet but I figured I would attach a ‘curtain’ to it, if nothing else but to make it look neater and hide the items I will store there. I’m not planning on painting the legs of the benches.
Jarrell
“My question though, is how by painting will that stop the humidity from swelling it? There is going to be areas that didn’t get paint when being assembled?”
Paint doesn’t completely ‘seal’ the wood, unless you use a sealer like Kilz or Kilz2. The paint does help to close up the pores of the wood and help prevent moisture from swelling the wood. A coat of paint will go a long way preventing swelling, probably enough that it wouldn’t cause you any problems unless you have a real creek running through your layout room. But if you have that, paint is probably the LEAST of your problems!
The small areas that don’t get painted after assembly are insignificant in attracting moisture and limited in that by definition, those areas are already ‘covered’ by the assembled pieces.
I mentioned staining earlier but MisterBeasley’s comment about his wife urethaning his layout reminded me that stain will not seal at all. You will need a top finish like polyurethane to completely seal the wood. Shellac will work as long as your humidity is stable. Otherwise, moisture can penetrate shellac, swell the wood and turn the shellac white or orange.
If you don’t have high-low swings in humidity, it still comes down to your personal choice on whether to paint or stain/finish your layout. Whatever looks good to you will be fine.
Darrell, quiet again…for now
Thanks everyone for the help! Majority answering seemed to favor painting … for looks and/or humidty help. So, now I’m into painting the lumber for the first 24’ of my L-girder benchwork, since it willl reside in a pretty good looking room.
Hal
Great, Hal.
Remember to post a picture or two as you go along. We LOVE to rubber-neck!
Darrell, the quiet one…for now