surface preparation recommendations.

[maxi-model]

My prefered method - Colouron wood dye. Apply before any glueing or varnishing. Allow to dry properly before any further work. Sand the frets with fine grade flat block sander prior to any assembly or final finishing with varnish.

With overlays of different colours assemble and glue pre-stained parts before any varnishing. Any wood varnish will do, use 2-3 brush applied coats depending on how much of a grain textured finish you want. Make sure you let each coat dry properly before the next. Sand any surfaces, edges, butt joints, etc', that are to be glued together to remove any traces of varnish that is there so that it all holds together properly.

You could go to a combined wood varnish/stainer but that would not be so convenient where you wish to have different colours using overlays.

Here's one I made earlier with the above described methods

Suppliers - B&Q, Homebase, Etc'.

Max.
Just tidying the text up a bit

 

[stevedenver]

what maxi said
bear in mind, that wood stains will fade in a few years, so i suggest that you make the contrast a bit more than you might otherwise choose to compensate

also consider either a maritime type finish or simply a high quality matte poly-both will afford some protection f the cars get wet-the key is to use a high quality brush, and very thin, thouroughly covering coats, and repeat 2-3 times, letting each coat dry

normally i would suggest 0000 fine steel wool between coats-and only when dry (very dry and hard-perhaps as much as a week's time) , but i fear with a model you will burn through edges and perhaps cause more issues than the rough up will cure -it does smooth and help the next coat adhere well

i would also suggest that after coating the individual pieces for assembly, that you put a coat on the finished assembled item, IF you think these might get wet (more than a quick sprinkle)-this might prevent moisture from getting under the wood

i am very fond of polys-they are super tough, adhere well, very tough and hard and tend not to yellow as much as varnish or , god forbid, shellace (which looks great and is , imho, worthless for actual protection

i have had superb performance btw from the tinted polys-they need constant stirring but do the job beautifully-again use matte-or semi matte, otherwise, slight imperfections and dust and stuff will show a great deal more-its very difficult to get a nice high gloss by hand-but it can be done if youre very careful with cleaning the dust first and rapidly applying so it can level and meld , removing streaks-temperature of the room and good lighting is critical-not to warm will allow it to set up a bit more slowly and flatten and meld

 

[DVR_Chris]

Having some of these kits, I have found that by staining the underlay then assembling as per instuctions (e.g sanding everything neatly) that you get a good finish with very little surface preparation. You can then varnish the whole lot over before (fitting the windows!) and final assembly. The inside dont need to be painted but I chose to do them white. The coaches are seen here behind my Merlin Major.

 

[maxi-model]

Note when painting with Halfords type auto paint onto wood over wood dyes like Colouron - DON'T.
Wood dyes like Colouron will leach through primers (best use filler primer on wood) and colour coats and severley discolour the paint applied over it.

E.G. If you stain the outside surface and have some of the dye lap over/soak through to the inside surface and you use a light colour for the interior don't be surprised if that bit shows through the light colour you apply for the interior. No problem if they are kept separate on either side of the wood.
Don't ask me how I found out :crying:

Max.

 

[Andrew Foster]

If you do use steel wool, be very careful to remove any trace of it afterwards. I use a hefty magnet for this when there are no steel parts. It can be very difficult to see the smallest pieces, and of course they won't appear until after you've painted or varnished it. Then they'll rust through. I discovered this the hard way...

Andrew

 

[StephH]

I must admit I dislike the rather heavy over scale grain in the Birch Ply most laser cut kits are made from, if you look at the sides of most railway coaches they are very smooth under the paint. When building these I therefore paint them, after a long period of many coats of sanding sealer/shellac on the individual parts, taking much care/time to gently sand each coat after drying with very fine sandpaper, doing this I remove the grain and get a nice smooth side. The only issue with sanding the frets is you have to be very careful not to soften the nice crisp edges, so I do less work on these, as they are so narrow they are not so obviously grained.

Of course if you want a stained wood look you could not do this.... unless you feel you could paint the stained wood effect, which I reckon could be done (after all OO modellers paint teak LNER coaches!)... I must have a go at some point!
Steph'

 

[stevedenver]

beautiful work steph!