Improving wood dec

[Ragnar]

Will be installing my first wood deck and have a couple of questions for those modeler who have gone before�
1. Plan on killing the self sticking glue and using Matte Medium to give more time positioning and adjust the pieces. Will any flat spray such as Testors dull Coat or Tamiyas flat finish work or is a more specific product preferred�.Kylon matte finish etc.?
2. How many attempt to improve the look of the wood decks and what�s the preferred approach?

Edit:
I just reread Sargent x thread on wood decks, just wanted a bit more clarification on his excellent post�

[wefalck]

My personal opinion, that these wood-decks are grossly overscale (too coarse engraving and woodgrain) and should be avoided, perhaps a couple of practical thoughts:

- do not use acrylic varnishes to stick the wood down, but rather a solvent-based varnish; the reason is that the water may warp the wood and when you use a sanding-filler (see below) before, the water cannot evaporate very easily.

- before installation, apply a solvent-based sanding filler (again in order not to warp the wood) and rub down with very fine (0000) steel-wool; check how smooth the surface is and repeat, if needed.

- one then can give each individual plank a light wash with different acrylic paints e.g. in white, burnt umber or some beige tint; repeat on selected planks to give them a subtle variation; repeat until you are satisfied; one can also add grime etc. at this stage; seal by spraying on a matt varnish.

[drasticplastic]

@Wefalk; would you use a spray lacquer varnish (as a sanding sealer) if that was all you had at hand?

[wefalck]

Well, I would prefer to brush the varnish on, in order to get a better penetration. If a spray-can is all you have, blow some into metal dish or something that does not get attacked by the solvent.

Are there any sanding-sealers in spray-cans? I would be surprised, because the 'filler' (e.g. pumice dust) tends to clog the spray-head.

What is important is that that the varnish dries up hard or you can sand/rub it down with steel-wool. The nitrocellulose-based one I am using dries very fast and can be sanded within an hour or so.