Painting laser cut wooden kits

[Cyclone]

As my IP fowler railbus nears completion.
How should I paint it? I'm going to paint it green.

What should I prime with and then any advice on which paints to airbrush with?

(New airbrush for Christmas )

I'm kinda thinking Halfords grey primer and the railmatch acrylic paint then games workshop purity seal. (As I have these already)

I've only painted wagons before and they're easy as looking messy is good.

Ed

 

[Alpineandy]

you definitely need to prime first to seal the wood, then a light rub down some fine abrasive paper to remove any imperfections, you may need to prime again, then apply your top coats, finish with a matt varnish (apply decals first before doing this if you are going to use them)
Use a test piece to check compatibility of paint types if you are not sure.

 

[maxi-model]

Recommend Halfords filler primer. 2-3 coats' rubbing down between, depending on how much wood grain you want to show. Then, correct colour primer coat for chosen colour. Don,t forget to seal any unseen bare wood surfaces to minimise any risk of warping in the future. Colour coats should be gloss if you are adding waterslide decals. Use a product like Microcale Microsol/Microset to help decals conform to any grain and "hide" decal film. Then add sealing coat.
Max.

 

[Doug]

Ivan at IP recommends using sanding sealer first to fill the grain then use Dulux Emulsion paint - thats what he uses for all his demo models on the stand at the shows and on the website. Dulux paint is acrylic and is self leveling - it leaves no brush marks, and is available in any colour you like.

Personally i use Halfords grey primer and car aerosols.

 

[Cyclone]

Sanding sealer. Not met this before but a quick google has filled me in.

Any particular brand?

 

[Cyclone]

HUMBROL.

We used to make our own....clear dope with talcum powder added!!

Don't sniff the stuff!!

That sounds really dodgy O0 but I know what you mean cheers

 

[Trainman58]

Interesting about the dope. I was told before you apply any paint, give the wood a coat of strong dope to seal it. I have tried it a couple of times but still tend to paint with grey primer first.

 

[StephH]

I just use DIY shellac type sanding sealer applied in multiple coats, each carefully sanded down between applications. It depends on how smooth you want your coach sides. With the ply kits I added 10+ coats, but I wanted my sides very smooth! On my IP kits I actually did this prep before construction started so as to allow better access though, sanding down when the frets are attached might mean you sand the edges of the frets loosing the sharp neat edges? One thing to remember when applying any paint/sealer etc is to use even coats on either side of wood etc or you may find warping. The Halfords filler primer is good. I have used many types of paint for top coats... I have even used Plastikote aerosols! One thing to remember of course is to test for reactions.... I have had some very strange results over the years when in theory the paints were compatible!

ATB