first packs, (im building 3 at the same time) are mostly wood. i obviously dont want it to look like wood when its finished, so im looking to layer something on the wood before i paint it. i was thinking primer. has anyone done this? does it work?
i dont really have the time and cash for vaccu-forming.
also, i found a really nice piece for the faceplate on the power cell LED. a 5 1/4 drive bay cover that has a slot for a floppy. ill find a link and add it soon.
No, primer alone won’t work. You need to use wood filler. I reccomend Zar. Minwax sucks. Bondo sucks. Mod Podge sucks. (Mod podge isn’t a wood filler, but it was reccomended.) Se a post I made a few days ago on wood filler for details.
You’ll have to apply a few coats. I used MDF so my wood was already fairly smooth. I gave it a light sanding, then I primed it. Then, being able to see where it needed more sanding, I sanded it again. Then I applied a coat of wood filler over it, scraping off the excess with the sharp edge of the spatula I used to apply it. Then I primed it again. Then I painted it because I ran out of time, but it still wasn’t totally smooth, but if you keep applying wood filler and sanding it down with a light grit sandpaper, you’ll eventually get it smooth.
Of course, you could simply apply a whole lot of wood filler over it to coat it completely, let that dry, and then sand it with a power sander with a light grit sandpaper. But I didn’t have time to try that method. That would definitely cover the wood texture but it’ll take a little while to sand back down.
ghost guy is right. and you are smart to hide the grain..i can’t stand seeing that wood grain on packs.especially gloss black on untreated wood.
to fill the cracks, slight mistakes, rough edges, etc, im using caulk. its working amazingly, fully paintable also. im gonna run to home depot and check out this zar stuff. this is kind of a rush job, and extremely overwhelming with the 3 packs at one time. so i havent really been documenting and picturing it. ill take a few, mainly when im finished the basic shell ill snap a few pics. this friggin pack is going to be heavy.
thanks for the advice guys
elmer’s wood filler at walmart is also great stuf, but is a bit “cushy” when you work with it. It also takes 2-3 days to harden is large areas are filled (3/4" plus). Smaller areas can cure in 30 minutes though.
I don’t think Home Depot carries Zar. I got it from True Value. Home Depot is where I got the crappy Minwax stuff.
But anyway, this is what the container looks like:
It’s some kind of latex compound with pulverized wood in it.
Oh and you do want to use primer, after the wood filler.
Primer makes sure that all the surfaces will come out the same color/shininess, and helps seals the surfaces, so you can put paint that normally would melt plastic onto plastic, and so you don’t need as much paint cause it won’t soak into the wood.
At least that’s my understanding of what it does. It seemed to protect my plastic parts from my non-plastic friendly paint anyway. I don’t know if it would protect foam if someone is painting that. I kinda doubt it would, it probably does leach through to some degree.
caulk is good… post some pics soon…
That’s just the sort of opinion I’d expect from a guy named Enchanted Unicorn. 
One word that I echo more then I care…
Shellac
Multiple coats with a little sanding every few coats and it will erase wood grain completely…
It dries and can be recoated in about 10 minutes, with 3 or 4 good brushed coats you should be able to erase even tough open grain woods like Oak…
You can get to a candy gloss and glass smooth finish with shellac…
For larger voids, you might need some fillers, but for grain lines shellac is the answer, even on MDF to seal it down, especially the cut edges that lack the glossy finish of the factory surface…
I don’t wanna contradict anyone (but I probably will) but you can use primer. I don’t know what it’s called in the US, but in the UK we have what we call filler primer. It’s a spray primer about the consistency of a McDonald’s milkshake, and covers wood grain really well. A few coats of that will fill even deep woodgrain, and being a spray it won’t require as much sanding back to get really smooth. The other benefit is that being a primer as well as a filler, it dries as fast as a spray primer and once you’ve got it down to the smoothness you’re after, you can spray your top coat straight on top. Should save you a fair bit of time (especially if you’re trying to get your pack done for halloween!)
I haven’t seen a product like that at places like Home Depot, but I did some searching online, and I think maybe you can get that filler primer stuff at an automotive place. I remember seeing a bunch of specialty spray paints when I went there to get some bondo.
Guess I could try that if it’s cheap. Lot easier than trying to fill every little gap and surface with wood filler. My whole pack is made out of MDF and basswood, and the basswood is potentially very promlematic with all the gaps and ribs and stuff on those parts.
Yeah, automotive stores are way to go for finding filler primer. It’l be in either the spray paint or car filler sections. It normally costs about the same as standard primer, maybe a few pounds (or dollars or whatever) more. But it does negate the need for a seperate primer, so unless your filler costs almost nothing, I would imagine it’d work out cheaper
you got me on that one…now I’m having a flashback to the alien probe thread. lmao
For wood grain and over all knicks to fill in I use Bondo Glazing & Spot Putty. You will find this in an automotive store and comes in a heavy toothpaste like tube. It goes on creamy, dries fast, and sands easily.
For primer I use Rust-oleum automobile primer which dries fast as well and creates a glossy smooth finish after a couple of sanded coats. I usually do 2 coats unless I find an area I need to do more filling in.
