Finley House

George...

 

Don't need an airbrush for this situation.  Rattle cans are A-OK.  In fact Art Fahey (Bar Mills) got me hooked on the use of Walmart's cheap blue-label rattle can spray paints.  Their primer (gray) would be your first step.  Less than $2, I believe, per can.

 

BUT...first get yourself an inexpensive pistol-style hair dryer.  (I keep mine 'holstered' on the side of my spray booth!).  The purpose of this is to follow each light coat of the spray paint IMMEDIATELY with a fast dry using the hair dryer.  This will help ensure minimal/no warpage of wood surfaces.  Been using this technique for years...nary a problem to date.

 

In addition to primer gray, I've found the same brand of flat black, flat white rattle cans to be mainstays in my shop.  In fact, I, too, have built the Finley house, and followed the primer coat with a couple light coats of the flat white for the basic exterior siding color. 

 

So, FWIW....

 

KD

 

P.S....

 

Two more thoughts...

 

LOTS of ventilation when using rattle cans....i.e., outdoors or garage preferable, in the absence of a vented booth.

 

An inexpensive lazy susan device (check Walmart, again) helps to maneuver the building for spraying/drying.

 

Thanks KD...great ideas and suggestions. Next time out, Walmart, here I come.

 

George (G3)

George, those are good suggestions from kd. I, too, learned to use cheap spray primer (virtually any brand works) from Art. While I do have a hair dryer in the shop, I generally just spray both sides of a basswood wall and when it's dry to the touch, weight it down (heavy books work well) for an hour or so. putting wax paper under and over the walls will minimize paint transfer. this is basically Art's method before using acrylics and you'll always get straight walls. if there's still any curvature you can always add a few pieces of stick bracing on the back.

jerrman

dkddrk has a good point worth paying attention too.  Basswood is less likely to warp in my experience that somer others, but it can.  Make light coats and dry ti quick, or use a completely non-water based paint and glue.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

KD - Great looking hose!  Very nice job.

 

Art

 You really captured realism in that model. I noticed that you even weathered the building slightly. I mostly color with brush and vinyl latex paint purchased at Walmart, Hobby Lobby and Michaels Crafts. Also use rattle spray cans for large areas and always wear a mask when doing so.  Nice neat job of putting that kit together. Lets see the pics on the layout.

Great building. Wow!

I used a non-water based spray primer, then you can paint it with anything.

No photo yet, but work is progressing. The four walls are done and everything is painted. Most of the windows are in. I used Pewter Grey as the color with white trim and it actually looks dark green. I built a paint booth out of 1/4" fan-fold insulation set up on saw-horses in the garage. Sprayed everything with non-water based paint as Joe recommended and he's right...you can then paint it with anything and I had zero warping. The mask is a must.

 

KD, your Finley House is awesome. I want to try to add a window air-conditioner. I thank you for so many ideas...extremely helpful.

 

The wood that Branchline uses for their trim pieces and windows is pretty awesome. I'd like to find some heavy card stock that has removable-covered sticky on the back. Run it through a laser printer and card stock models would sure save gluing time after cutting. Anybody know where you can get something like that?

 

Again, thanks to all who offered so much advice. 

 

George (G3)

No.  but I'd like to find some, too.  And it must exist somewhere.  If you had the paper they make the address-tag sheets out of, but not cut for tags, it might do.  Don't know if that is available?

I found a package of Avery full-sheet 8.5x11 adhesive paper at Walmart. They make it for design-your-own labels. I don't know why I didn't think of that sooner. It works in an ink jet printer so I'll experiment and see what happens.

George (G3)

Let us know.  It would be superb shortcut if it works well.  It would certainly work well for things like signs you wanted to hang on the sides of buildings and such.

George,

Your house model came out great. I am glad to see a beagle on the front porch.

My beagle hangs out with me a lot when I am building models in the workshop.

Alan Graziano