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for 70mm/1/24 scale dio’s. The wood is laser-etched, and has some intricate designing. It is all on light-colored wood. I would like to darken some paneling, or even paint in bright colors. Is it possible without obscuring the etched designs, or warping the panels?
PS; They call it “Dollhouse”, but it’s not, really…I don’t play with dolls…
Avoid water based paint unless you can thin it with something like alcohol.
The wood will absorb any moisture. Best to seal it with some king of clear coat or sanding sealer. You may have to use some fine steel wool on it to knock back some of the grain after spraying and respray. Once it’s sealed you should be able to paint it without having it warp. If you re AB covering the detail shouldn’t be an issue.
I have used wood for most of my railroad builds for more years than i can remember. 99% of the time i use cheap acrylic artist paints. To stain simply thin the paint way way down with water. To colour thin the paint with water but not as much as you would for staining. If you can do both sides and the same time. Then weigh them down and let them dry flat. Or paint the back side with a wood glue then paint the surface. Results will depend on the type of wood. Balsa is problematic. Bass wood is easier. Practise on scrap wood first
The wood used seems to be a very thin plywood. Thanks.
As noted above you can use water based paints if you take some care and the extra step of weighing the parts down while they dry. I build HO scale model rr kits that use the same thin plywood and even thinner veneer pieces to build up the models. My preference is to use solvent based paints as I find it very easy to control the paint density and high light rather then obscure the detail as I paint. At times some pieces will warp but I have found the warps fairly easy to remove by some judicious bending in the opposite direction. As you noted the pieces are plywood so it is rare that something will break while you do this.
If you want to see an example of an HO kit, I am currently doing a small blog in the RR forum titled “East Shops Tower on the Buffalo Western”. East Shops Tower on the Buffalo Western
It’s not just the warping. Water will raise the grain and create the fuzzies far more than alcohol or oil based paints. The only way to get rid of the fuzz is sanding or burnishing. Those risk losing surface detail.
Since acrylics are not desirable, my paint of choice would be Tamiya thinned with their own lacquer. Other than that I can use thinned tube oil paints.
That’s what I would do! Test it on scrap if possible. Otherwise test on a surface that won’t show.