HO Buildings from scrap wood

Sep 21, 2011 3 Replies

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Puckdropper 14 years ago

I know we've got a few model railroaders in here, so I'd like to share the results of my latest experiment. I made a building "box" out of wood and used the wood as a guide for attaching styrene to make the building. That worked reasonably well, but the roof still had to be built from scratch.

In a related experiment, I made an 8x12 shed with gambrel style roof. That took a little more woodworking, but now I've got a decent looking shed that only took a bit of time to make. For a siding effect, I used a balsa stripper to etch lines to represent wood siding.

So a quick finishing question: If I shellac the wood before painting, are the grain lines less likely to show through the paint? I'm using cheap craft paint (Apple Barrel Colors that Walmart used to sell for $.50 a bottle) and pine. It took about 3 coats for the grain lines to be sufficiently hidden.

Puckdropper

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Bill Waller 14 years ago

Have you considered SealCoat? It may take a couple of coats to fill in the grain, but it does dry fairly quickly. __________________ Bill Waller New Eagle, PA

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SonomaProducts.com 14 years ago

If painting any wood and want a smooth finish you should use a primer and sand lighjtly. BIN is shellac based, is thick and builds well and sand easy. I use it to get baby butt smooth finish on any reasonably low textured grain wood.

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Father Haskell 14 years ago

Folkart acrylics cover well for the price, especially the exterior line.

Automotive spray primer, red, white, or gray, whatever's closest to your topcoat color. I've gotten red to cover red Rustoleum metal primer in one coat. That's usually a 4 coat job, minimum.

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