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Hi,

What's the best way for sealing cardboard for painting as terrain to stop it warping? I know ideally I would use different materials for modelling terrain, but sometimes you see something that has an original shape to it that would make a good piece of terrain. I can't really use a filler as it would ruin the shape so I'm not sure what the best options are here?

I thought I'd seen a post discussing this previously but I can't seem to find it. Would sealing the cardboard with a spray varnish suffice? Perhaps then applying the base layers with an airbrush and only painting the detail with a brush to try and minimize warpage? Or would a different type of paint be better?

Thanks

Tom

I would usually seal with dilute PVA. This will make it curl, as you say.

Best chance I can think of, is very light sprays of varnish layered up as the previous dries. Experiment on something expendable first.

Thanks , I tried some watered down PVA on a piece recently and I think I used too much water! All I have in mind at the moment is using the bottom half of an egg box to create either a power store/ or missle silo. Trouble is I know that getting that carton wet will cause some issues.

Egg box shape should help. It's intrinsically stronger than a flat sheet, which will curl at the merest whiff of absorbed liquid.

I finsihed a diorama recently and the tiles were all made of cardboard. I sealed them with 3 coats of PVA/water mix (1:3 I think) did the trick they swoll every so slightly at first but went back to normal as they dried. After that primed and sealed further with sprayed chaos black. Totally worked.