Painting Wood Kits

I do a fair amount of work with milled basswood. If the wood shows some fuzz I give it one pass with fine steel wool. My next step is to stain every piece both sides. This helps prevent warping since I use acrylic paint. I also dislike flashes of white wood inside my structures. When I paint I dry brush, never use paint full strength.

@EmpireBuilderDave posted:

My last model i sprayed first then painted in acrylic and too much of the wood grain and fuzz from the wood is still showing.

I know that many advocate pre-staining and/or pre-painting prior to or during the process of assembly. You have to be careful in doing that not to be gluing paint to paint or stain to stain either of which compromises the bond that you would get otherwise with a wood to wood joint.

Sanding and maybe steel wool, but cleaning up the surface prior to painting or staining is important; a soft brass wire brush is very useful to clean the surface followed by wiping it clean.

Not sure why you are doing Rustoleum spray followed by acrylic; maybe use the Rustoleum spray gray primer followed by whatever else you intend to use after it's fully cured and dry.

If I can avoid hand painting, I do. But if that's not an option, then it's hand painting with either Floquil or Polly Scale. The latter is primarily used for details and accents.

Interesting, I had not thought of staining first.  I've done other wood project where I used stain conditioner to start the wood then stained it.
Maybe I could use some old leftover stain and then acrylic paint on top of it...

@mwb posted:

I know that many advocate pre-staining and/or pre-painting prior to or during the process of assembly. You have to be careful in doing that not to be gluing paint to paint or stain to stain either of which compromises the bond that you would get otherwise with a wood to wood joint.

Sanding and maybe steel wool, but cleaning up the surface prior to painting or staining is important; a soft brass wire brush is very useful to clean the surface followed by wiping it clean.

Not sure why you are doing Rustoleum spray followed by acrylic; maybe use the Rustoleum spray gray primer followed by whatever else you intend to use after it's fully cured and dry.

If I can avoid hand painting, I do. But if that's not an option, then it's hand painting with either Floquil or Polly Scale. The latter is primarily used for details and accents.

Yes, I was thinking I need to glue first, using Tightbond, and then condition the wood then paint.
I had sprayed only because I am programmed to do that for plastic kits but that probably makes no sense for wood.

Have you tried using a sanding sealer ?

@EmpireBuilderDave posted:

Interesting, I had not thought of staining first.  I've done other wood project where I used stain conditioner to start the wood then stained it.
Maybe I could use some old leftover stain and then acrylic paint on top of it...

Okay, the overwhelming majority of the time I'm not using acrylics; if I'm staining, it's out of my stock of old MinWax

I always stain before gluing, using Minwax as well. If you glue before staining, the wood under any excess glue will be white forever...  I find the white glue joints of stained wood pieces are pretty strong; times I have needed to break apart joints, what comes away is the surface layer of wood...

I should mention that I rarely use wood sheet (eg clapboard siding) alone. I prefer to bond the wood to either foam board or mat board / bainbridge board. That eliminates any question of structural strength or warping.

Looking for something local i've found Minwax sanding sealer and Zinser shellac spray.  Seems like a brush on would be easier to deal with as I'd glue the kit first then apply sanding sealer then the paint.  This should also help reduce amount of paint getting sucked up by the wood I think.
I note some sanding sealers have wax which sounds bad for painting over.  Any particular brands you've found effective?
My searches on the forum seem to be focused on wood train car kits but the same principle applies I think.

I've used both Minwax and Varathane sanding sealers and prefer the Minwax. I should note that this has been on actual wood projects, not model train kits but, like you said, I would hope the same principal would apply. They do make spray sanding sealers, but I have not tried them.

Also, note that sanding sealers are lacquers, so any top coat has to be compatible with a lacquer undercoat.