Lacquer paint that can be brushed on for Walthers LAUPT model

[Southwest Chief]

I'm looking for advice on lacquer based paints that can be brushed painted on. 

I'm working on a Walthers LAUPT model.  It is paper/cardstock based and has to be painted with lacquer paints.  The walls will warp badly if I used acrylic paints.  Much like an old Suydam cardstock kit.  Floquil used to be my go to paint for buildings like these, but unfortunately they are no longer around.

The exterior wall clad color on this building is pretty good so I'm really only looking into painting the interior walls.  Which unfortunately (after gluing on some exterior wall veneers) will now have to be brush painted and cannot be airbrushed.

There are some lacquer paint brands out there but not too many that can be brush painted.  Most seem to be pre-thinned for airbrushing.  I've worked with similar pre-thinned paints (although acrylic, Badger Model-Flex comes to mind) and they are way too thin to brush paint.

Scalecoat is nice, however I'm not sure gloss finish will work for this application.

Testors and Model Masters might also work.  However you get so little paint in their small bottles.  Not exactly practical for the large interior walls of this building.

Are there any lacquer paints out there that can be brush painted like good old Floquil?

Here's how the station on my mini diorama in progress looks (note some of the white wall veneers and the roofs are not glued down yet)

[chutton01]

Why wouldn't DIY flat lacquer or enamel paints from big box home centers not work for this project?

[Southwest Chief]

I have some from Home Depot. But it is pretty thick and has not worked well on other HO projects.

[Motley]

Wait hold on a sec here. So this thing is made out of paper? Thats odd I hope you didn't pay too much for it.

Why didn't they just make it out of plastic like all their other station kits?

[chutton01]

Motley

Wait hold on a sec here. So this thing is made out of paper? Thats odd I hope you didn't pay too much for it.
Why didn't they just make it out of plastic like all their other station kits? 

As Walthers likes to say "Architectural-Grade Board & Plastic Construction" (Walthers catalog entry for LAUPT).

Can you thin the house paint by 50% or so, clearly you don't need to slop it on a full size wall.

[modelmaker51]

You could use Scalecoat paint and spray it with Dullcoat to get your matt finish.

[MisterBeasley]

I typically don't paint building interiors.  Instead, I print the pattern I want on my computer, cut the pieces out and glue them to the inside walls with Aileen's Tacky Glue, which does not attack paper products or water-based inks.  Besides flat surfaces in any color, I can add details like wainscotting or velvet Elvis paintings on the walls.  Viewed through the windows, the effect is very good.

[bogp40]

If you have all the 'water" based paints on hand, seal the interior w/ a shellac base sealer. Those surfaces then can be painted w/ your choice of acrylics. no need to hunt down laquer paint. many of the ready to use sealers may be thinned to 50/ 50 (denatered alcohol), if you feel you may initially get it "too wet" thin Bull'seye shellac to the ratio that works best.

Thinned Kilz (not the water based version) would also work.

[Southwest Chief]

MisterBeasley

I typically don't paint building interiors.  Instead, I print the pattern I want on my computer, cut the pieces out and glue them to the inside walls with Aileen's Tacky Glue, which does not attack paper products or water-based inks. 

I was going to do this for the flooring.  Never thought to do this for the walls.

And I used Aileen's for assembly of the building.  Works great for these types of kits "paper".

[railandsail]

Southwest Chief

I'm looking for advice on lacquer based paints that can be brushed painted on. 

I'm working on a Walthers LAUPT model.  It is paper/cardstock based and has to be painted with lacquer paints.  The walls will warp badly if I used acrylic paints.  Much like an old Suydam cardstock kit.  Floquil used to be my go to paint for buildings like these, but unfortunately they are no longer around.

The exterior wall clad color on this building is pretty good so I'm really only looking into painting the interior walls.  Which unfortunately (after gluing on some exterior wall veneers) will now have to be brush painted and cannot be airbrushed.

There are some lacquer paint brands out there but not too many that can be brush painted.  Most seem to be pre-thinned for airbrushing.  I've worked with similar pre-thinned paints (although acrylic, Badger Model-Flex comes to mind) and they are way too thin to brush paint.

Scalecoat is nice, however I'm not sure gloss finish will work for this application.

Testors and Model Masters might also work.  However you get so little paint in their small bottles.  Not exactly practical for the large interior walls of this building.

Are there any lacquer paints out there that can be brush painted like good old Floquil?

Here's how the station on my mini diorama in progress looks (note some of the white wall veneers and the roofs are not glued down yet)

 

If you are still active on the forum,can you give me some dimensions on that train station? I want to build that same model for my west coast location on my new dbl-deck layout.