I'm finishing up on a Revell Gato (boy, bought all the resin, PE and wooden deck before those amazing 1/44 and 1/72 models came out!!)
I've installed the Nautilus Models wood deck -looks great. But they advise not to use acrylic paint - it will cause the wood to warp.
I exclusively use Tamiya paints in my airbrush - airbrushing in a small NYC apartment is hard enough, using a spirits based paint in the airbrush is out of the question. I probably can get away with a spray can now and again.

Is there anything I can use to seal the wood and then paint with Tamiya?

-or I was thinking of just using a Tamiya or other brand spray can for the deck, and finish the rest of the model with Tamiya through the airbrush.

I've spent alot of time on this guy, so I want the finish to look nice.

Any advice is most appreciated!

Peter

Well i’ve never worked on a wood deck for a model before but I have a bit of experience with wood.

Do you know what type of wood its made from? That may help some.

And was the wood on the ship colored or left the natural color? If the later you could probably find some stain to make it the correct shade. If the formal stain would work if you could find the correct color but that may prove difficult.
You can find sealers for wood. Some of which hay need sanded after applying. As a general rule with wood you went to use a sealer that’s the same as the paint your be using. (Acrylic sealer for acrylic paints.) I don’t know if the acrylic sealer would effect the wood or not. (It depends on thickness and type of wood.) Also test and sealers or stains on a piece of scrap plastic from the kit first. Some of them will eat plastic.

Now as for the apartment if you plan on buying sealer or stain you may wish to ask the store owner if you can smell the paint before buying. (Explain the situation to them) some have no smell while others are much worse then any paint I’ve used.


It you test it on a piece and see how it works first I’ve heard of using supperglue to seal wood on lathe work before. I’ve never tried it before so I don’t know the details.

I have to totally agree with redneck on this one. Go with a stain. Just lightly brush it on rather than run it through an airbrush. You could do the same thing with some enamel based paint, but I think with real wood I would stain it.