Painting Balsa wood

[Sangennaru]

Hi! I'm looking for some good tutorial on painting balsa wood... I know how to do it, but I would like to have some painting scheme for dioramas and high quality stuff... can you help me?

thank you everybody!!!

Jack

[Dewbakuk]

Quite often I just give it a wash. The wood soaks up the paint giving natural highlights.

[archangel1]

The biggest problem with painting balsa, particularly with some of the softer varieties, is that it is a paint sponge and, if you're not careful, like a sponge, will expand, opening the grain and ruining the effect.  A good prime coat of a fairly dense paint might help.  That's one of the reasons why I never use balsa for modelling (other than as an interior support where it can't be seen), particularly in the smaller scales.  Basswood is a much better choice - it's denser, finer grained, cuts and sands better, and takes paint or stain very well.

[Dewbakuk]

That's a good point. I tend to use Basswood too, hadn't really thought about it. It's also stronger and cheaper.

[duhamel]

I'll try to explain how I paint the balsa.
I use "lasurfarben acrylic. the more you dilute, the more it is claire.et unless it is diluted, the more it is dark. thereby creating the effect on balsa fairly quickly. just paint the lightest to darkest. 

[dijit]

I've not heard of basswood before, can you get in normal modeling shops?

[Sp0n]

I haven't found lind (basswood) in any of the regular modelling stores in Copenhagen (Stoppel, Model & Hobby), except for laminate. The usually stock balsa and pine, but not much else... Maybe the train modelling stores will have some? I've used pine for my CSS Virginia project, but haven't got any experience with painting it...

[duhamel]

I've not heard of basswood before, can you get in normal modeling shops?

not in the hobby store, but in art stores (brand: Lefranc & Bourgeois)

[dijit]

ah, it's lind, ok I've heard of that, but never seen it. There's a train modeling shop down in Kolding that might have it.

[gamer Mac]

Hobbycraft in the UK has bass wood. I bought a big bag for £10. Loads of different bits in it from block to loads of strips. I found it a lot cheaper than balsa wood. My local railway model shop has it in stock as well.

[Silent Invader]

Balsa can be sealed with a coat of thin (ie the cheap and runny stuff) superglue (tho health & safety considerations apply!) or I spray with an acrylic undercoat (ditto re h&s!).

[Sangennaru]

thanks to everyone!

actually, i was looking for a painting style more for dioramas (E.G. rotten wood or really old one). I know there are some simple and effective techniques (I mean acrylic paints), but I don't know how!
don't you have some tutorial or similar?

thanks in advance

[former user]

basswood (Linde in German, Lime? in BE) is usually used for the surfaces of the better, thinner plywood.
being wood from leaf trees, it is more compact than wood from pinetrees and thus more suitable for fine details ar furniture
In Germany at least, You can usually get it in hardware stores or in good modelling stores

[Sangennaru]

basswood (Linde in German, Lime? in BE) is usually used for the surfaces of the better, thinner plywood.
being wood from leaf trees, it is more compact than wood from pinetrees and thus more suitable for fine details ar furniture
In Germany at least, You can usually get it in hardware stores or in good modelling stores

Hey wait a sec: I'm talking about Balsa (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ochroma_pyramidale), not tilia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilia)

I hate using basswood, because is really weak and hard to work with.. i rather prefere polilpat or foams!

[Dewbakuk]

I hate using basswood, because is really weak and hard to work with

Maybe you have a different Basswood over there, the stuff we have is far stronger than balsa and not that much harder to work with the right tools.