Painting Homosote

Homasote will absorb any paint that you want.  I would use a latex paint tinted dark green.  Cheap is as good as expensive.  The expensive paint has more prigments which you don't really need.

One gallon can cover four 4' x 8' sheets doing both sides and the edges.

Jan

I use the cheapest Latex paint I can find in a brown/tan color.  Go to Home Depot or Lowes "ooops mistake" bin and they usually have something you can use for about 5 bucks a gallon.  If you are going to apply static grass, have everything ready to go and apply it to the wet paint.  In the below pic, the grass area was applied over the brown paint.  The rest of the cinders/dirt/ballast around the track and turntable pit is sanded grout, a favorite of mine.

Peter

For my yard, I rolled on medium grey flat latex only on the top.  You are right.  the Homasote really absorbed the paint.

For the mainline, I brush painted light/medium tan on the Homasote and surrounding plywood with the intent that grass ,etc would cover the paint up to the ballast line.

Regards,

Ed

I used a cheap brown latex paint and had no problems. There were a couple of areas that the seams did not close tight and I used a latex caulk and it worked and looked fine.

I had some primer left from a room job, so I primed it first, as I do on all of my painting. Kilz latex, water based. Any latex primer will do. You can have it tinted lightly with your final color. Then a coat of the final color. You will need multiple coats anyway, some why not seal it first?

My benchwork was covered with Homasote shortly after I built it...and on it I drew the trackplan to the first three HO layouts...lots of notes to myself for distance from fixed objects, etc.  None of those layouts ever had a train run.  I had lots of pencil and ink pen lines and more than a couple of Sharpie lines for critical distances...I even got one trackplan about 90% finished...and then...I left HO for 3-rail and all those "notes" were "wrong". 

I actually was about 75% finished laying my 3 rail track plan when I saw a friend's layout that he used a low cost paint his Homasote.  He elected to use a flat black and let it soak in so that the third rail was not noticeable.  And that is what I did.  I got the cheapest latex paint in flat black (WalMart as I recall, which really irritated my son who manages a paint store).

I approached with the concept that most if not all of the layout will be "repainted" as I apply scenery except that space under the track, thus I elected to paint the entire Homasote black to help hide the third rail.  Of course, I had to pull all the track I had laid thus far. 

I have set some track on the Homasote after the black paint dried and I love the effect.  When I go back later to add ground cover and ballast, the results will be exactly what I envisioned.

When the time comes to actually scenic the rest of the layout...I can paint an appropriate second coat for the small areas that will have grass (earth tone)...or those areas where it will be a city street (leave it black?) or for an industry (more black or perhaps a lighter gray for gravel parking) or any other area, I simply go get paint chips and find what I am looking for and go with it.

Of course, in the time honored approach of all modelers who procratinate, the layout is still dismantled from the painting the Homasote black.  (It has faded to a very nice dark gray as the paint was sucked into the Homasote.)  This time, when I start laying track, I will not start with the yard or some other feature like that...I start at the end of the line on the staging track.  Hardest to reach, thus, get it done right and move on.  And I will get the layout wired AS I put the track down.

I just need some spare time...too many hobbies and demands on my time.