Sealing Balsa

[bfrd]

I am working on a scratch built dio for my Feline Fever build and am using some balsa wood. I put a coat of Vallejo primer and it did not work out very well. The wood seemed to soak it in and then raised the grain up. I did my best to sand it down smooth, but I think I need to seal it somehow before putting more primer. I was thinking of using a couple of coats of Pledge Floor Care to get it sealed. Has anyone had experience with this? FYI here is a picture of what I have after the first sanding. Only the lower portion needs attention. It doesn't have any detail, so I can just keep priming and sanding. However, Vallejo primer doesn't exactly sand so well. I didn't want to waste my good primer on such a large area when I have this stuff just sitting.

[Johnj]

Screenshot_20171108-130243_zps16mva4ff.png (393.79 KiB) Viewed 8620 times

This stuff works pretty good.

[bfrd]

This stuff works pretty good.

Thanks!

[DrSprue]

I see your in the US here Matt,
I made quite a few balsa rockets back in the day and always used Aero gloss dope (it was called that for RC aircraft and rockets and even had fuel proofing as well, but no issues with your task)

We needed very flat smooth paintable surfaces and still needed a light weight surface. It takes a few coatings with sanding to get it nice and smooth.

It used to be made by Pactra (many years ago) but I have some recent stuff from Midwest.


Get the thinner and they even have paint for it too.

[DougvH]

Matt,

You also go to Lowe’s or Home Depot and get Zinsser or Minwax sanding sealer. I use it regularly for woodworking, and might be easier to get for you