I've got about a table and a half of MDF terrain to get painted here coming up. I didn't really want to blow through all my droppers of Vallejo and Citadel on this project though (use for details and drybrushing I'm fine with.) Can anyone recommend a good budget option or brand for a paint that will cover well, comes in a larger bottle, and is not so thick as to lose the details in the scenery pieces?
Now... I've only used it on one piece of mdf terrain so far but Rustolem "Professional" grey primer did very well on Customeeple's panic room. I think I did 3 light coats. Was a good place to start. Now if you're looking for brush on...
We've used primer and colours in spray cans from a do-it-yourself store ("Baumarkt" they are called in Germany, don't know the proper translation).
That was the route I was thinking of going. Main colors in a few light coats of spray paint. Then masking off some areas with tape and hitting it with a second color. dry brush and an ink wash after the fact.
One thing: MDF reportedly soaks paint like it's life depended on it, so people recommend to seal it with something. The Antenociti people recommend using shellac for this, others swear for the Army Painter primers, and others just use cheap rattlecans and soldier on no matter how many cans the scenery drinks up. I'd say test things.
Thanks for that heads up. I had a friend with one building of this same stuff and he mentioned how difficult it was to get a consistent coat. I was thinking of something like a shellac primer as a base coat but was worried that I would lose any fine lines or detail on the terrain to the thick coating of dead bugs. Has anyone been able to make it work consistently?
The Antenociti people will be able to confirm of course (maybe @Antenociti could suggest something, no idea). But in general i understand that this is like primer on a mini, when done correctly it shouldn't clog up detail. Then again i've personally never painted MDF stuff yet so what do i know
Flat enamel primer is best. Water-based primers will soak into the MDF. You can get cheap rattle can enamel primer at any hardware store. After that, just standard acrylic paint works just fine.
I used waterbased spray cans from Molotov (might be a german brand) - seems to be standard for illegal graffitis. comes in 400ml cans for about 8€ with exchangeable nozzles for different kinds of effects. Spraying was very quick, I usually had to give it just 1 go to get a good coverage. Surface is very smooth. For about half the amount of money you get spraycans from molotov that are not waterbased. Haven't used them because I wanted to stick to the waterbased cans.
Craft paints aren't very thick and can be thinned (imagine VMC but in ~60ml), sometimes you even find incredible things there. Artist paints can also be thinned, some brands sell ~250ml "paste tubes" rather cheap (or bigger pots even cheaper), look for the entry level like Amsterdam Standard Series or Titan Goya Studio (not the high end), the problem being color choice is "artistic" (pigment oriented, so 10s colors, instead of 100s of model or craft premixed paints). Of course, that also means you will learn the concept of transparent and semi opaque paints, or even permanence (worth paying attention in advance). As for sealer, some swear by PVA (I dislike the non-waterproof-ness of most). Urethane varnish or floor polish (the mythical Future) are also cheap alternatives (and a lot more waterproof).
Sanding sealer. It is literally made for this sort of thing. Also called seal-coat. Get a quart of it at your local DIY store. Brush it on. Let it dry. Take some 240 grit wet/dry to it if it is a bit rough. Prime with whatever you have handy, and then paint away.
If you're in the US, Apple Barrel or Delta Ceramcoat paints, the stuff you can buy at Michael's or Hobby Lobby (and not in the plastic model section, either). They're usually in much bigger bottles than Vallejo (like 60ml or maybe 100ml), and decent enough quality that some folks use them for painting their minis. You may still need to seal the MDF. I used a rattlecan of Testor's Flat Red to paint a Warsenal Torii gate. Almost the entire can, in fact, must have taken 5 or 6 coats before I got even coverage, and then I gave it one more coat for good measure. Option B would be to take whatever bottles of Vallejo you want to use on the terrain to Home Depot or some other paint store and get quarts of house paint made for you.
Antenociti recommends white Zinnser's shellac for mdf. I use it and have no feature clogging issues. You need to use thinners to clean it though. Enamel spray primer also works fine but I find it causes the mdf fibers to raise and need to be sanded down.
I use a sandable auto primer for both MDF and minis. 2-3 light coats seals the MDF well enough. I second @Section9 with the recommendation for the craft paints. They are thick and need to be thinned with water, but when handled properly they work just fine for minis and MDF.
Thanks to you both. That's a great tip for slapping paint on large pieces of area terrain that I don't want to burn through my expensive good paint on. I appreciate the help and will post up a progress pic thread once I get it started next week.
Are you sure it's not methylathed spirits (alcohols)? That is the typical solvent for (real) shellac. OTOH, it seems Zinsser sells multiple "shellacs",some are acrylic, others styrene copolymer based (WTF shellac).
I use a rustoleum sealer/primer in matt white or matt grey for the most part - two light coats. I did an entire table of Shark Mounted Lasers stuff using one can. Then I just use rattlecan colours over that for top colours.
