Should I paint my plywood roadbed before laying the cork roadbed and track, or leave it natural and cover it with ground cover later on? If painting it is the best approach, what color and type of paint have any of you used for a yard scene?
Thanks,
Mike
If you have a large area of plywood that will remain visible once your roadbed and track are in place, a coat of dirt or grass color will make the unfinished look a little less conspicuous. Check your local big box for the cheapest latex-based paint they have.
If your plywood just extends out far enough to act as a scenery anchor, it might be better to leave it au naturel. You want to assure solid glue joints if you are going to hot glue cardboard strips to form your terrain base.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
I’m of the opinion that painting all of the wood helps seal it against dramatic changes in humidity which cause expansion/contraction problems.
But that’s just me…
As usual, the answer is, “it depends.” What is your local climate? If you’re in an area with dramatic swings in climate, plywood can expand and contract a significant amount with changes in temperature and humidity. Even here in the Arizona desert, the humidity can get as high as 60 percent during the summer thunderstorm season, and as low as 10 percent in the driest part of the year. These fluctuations can cause wood to change sizes as it absorbs or loses moisture.
What they said… I try to paint both sides and the edges and use brown or gray or both to simulate earth or rock. Cheap latex works best.
If you have a humidity/temperature swing, AND you decide to paint the plywood first, you need to paint BOTH sides and all the edges to seal it properly. I do not know if latex paint will do this or not. I do know that urethane will seal it however.
I am a firm believer in painting, I painted my plywood with a light tan cheap paint. Of course being a desert railroad the light tan fits right in. Another color for you depending on the location of your road.
beleve it or not paint is not good for wood, use stain
1 stain will go farther
2 stain lets wood breath
3 stain cost less to use
4 now stain comes in all colors
5 stain will not peel
K
As ol’ Gary Cooper would have said:
Admittedly, there are some rare circumstances under which one may want to paint wood - children’s furniture comes readily to mind - but the subject under discussion in this post ain’t that!
Oh, I dont know about that… my wife could debate that…
I would be tempted, if I know certain sections were going ot be seen to the eye as the rest of the layout was built, I’d paint it. Always paint just the top… Then, its sealed, and can still breathe…
Wait a minute folks …
“Sealed” and “breathe,” in this usage, are mutually exclusive. If the wood breathes, it’s capable of picking up and exuding moisture from the air. If it’s sealed, it won’t do that. If you paint one surface, that surface will be sealed, but the wood can still contract and expand because it will absorb / emanate moisture. So to prevent that, you have to paint all surfaces.
i live in southeast Texas which has a very humid climate. I paint everything to seal it against the moisture and I also have to wait for a low humidity day to paint which is virtually “never” in the summer time down here. Once I tried to paint on a very humid day and there were streaks in the wood once the paint dried. The moisture in the air got under the paint and made it run. …chuck
I always paint my surfaces right away, no matter what the material. Bare plywood doesn’t say railroad to me, and blue or pink foam is worse.
I like to paint the exposed portions of my layout to show what is going to happen in that area, and it serves to provide an undercoating at the same time.
Here, I painted the streets one color and the lots another–just to get a feel for the layout. I’m going to cut it up to install switches. I’ll plater coat over that and repaint it with brick color what I’m going to have brick streets, cocrete color where the concrete where the concrete will go and grey where the asphalt will go.
I want to keep the end product in mind.
Mark was quick on the draw, and he got there first with my observation. Sealing means you don’t want porous surfaces to function that way. Otherwise, why seal? Just stain.
I agree with Bruce in the Peg about using urethane. Not only will it tend to do a better job as a sealant than most paints, but its hardness will contribute to keeping the surface of the wood from changing shape. It may not be a whopping effect, true, but it counts…it’s there if you apply enough of the concoction that it actually does seal the surfaces. Don’t forget the edges!
Wow, nothing like a consensus.
Ray