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I got some MDF terrain for a birthday gift, and now I am not sure how to paint it. I don't own an air brush, so I'm hoping for spray primer + dry brushing + detailing.

Does that sound right? I haven't painted MDF board, before. I was hoping to find a few pointers somewhere.

I have the Fantasy Arc set below:

I think that method should work fine.

IIRC you should also spray seal it after.

I've only had a few pieces of MDF terrain that I've painted, and things went much better when I started using an enamel based primer rather than an acrylic one. I found this out from reading one of the blog posts on the Warsenal site where they recommended the enamel primer.

When using a standard acrylic primer, along with the MDF absorbing it in different ways leaving a patchy finish initially, it also lifted the surface a bit meaning I had to prime, sand, prime then sand again to get a smooth surface.

Enamel stuff gave me a decent coat with one pass, and none of the lifting/graininess of acrylic.

Once you've got a decent primer coat on, it should practically be the same as painting a large plastic building.

Hope that helps.

Regards

After the basic sanding and touch up you need to due to some mdf seal with a sanding sealer (from your local hardwarestore) Then primer after sanding sealer has cured (24 to 96 hours depending on humidity) ..I have found Rustoleum primer/paint in my basecoat colour to be acceptable...


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The camoflage line has plenty of nice/appropriate basecoat colours ..

By sanding sealer, do you mean something like this:




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 Desubot wrote:

IIRC you should also spray seal it after.

Always seal!


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Bellyfluff wrote:

Enamel stuff gave me a decent coat with one pass, and none of the lifting/graininess of acrylic.

I was worried about patchiness. Enamel or a pre-sealing agent like morfydd mentioned might work, I suppose. Glad I asked here.

Yes that is the type of item can also be found in a brush on format (one I use the most since I have it for refinishing furniture)..

Mdf dice tower. Spray primed, drybrushed, flocked, sealed.

I've used this tutorial in reference to my MDF:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W64ZxNehoRc

(put up by Impudent Mortal a local company I have purchased stuff through)

Thank you for that video!