Dark stain look for laser cut furniture

[SOMECALLMETIM]

I have laser-cut wood passenger benches and agent desks I want to paint/stain to look like typical 1950s era satin-finish dark stained furniture. Can I just use a regular wood stain or should I paint them instead?

[Mark R.]

You can literally do whatever you want with them. Try the stain, if you don't like it, paint them.

Mark.

[edwardsutorik]

Paint is made up of pigment, binder, and solvent. Stain leaves out the binder.

With stain, the pigment soaks in. With paint, it sits on top with the binder.


All of the above is kinda simplified, but that's the basic idea.

The paint will tend to get rid of the grain, as it wants to fill the low spots. This is usually a good thing for models, as the grain of real wood is to coarse for most modeling. Bad news is you can end up having to sand it down. Then it turns into sanding sealer. When I worked in wood, my sanding sealer would be whatever I had in leftover paint. I've still got a never completed model of that giant tank car, and the tank itself is kinda rainbowed color. And smooth.




Ed