If you want a smooth finish on your plywood tank, first start with decent plywood. I cringe every time I see a tank being built out of cheap AC exterior fir plywood. Not much you can do with cheap ply other than cover it with fiberglass cloth and resin. Look for plywood with a nice exterior veneer of some sort of fine grained wood like birch, poplar, or maple. I'd avoid oak or luan veneered plywood due to the open grain of these woods. The types of plywood I am describing are usually marketed as cabinet grade or some other such nomenclature. They are also usually interior grade but that's not an issue since were building tanks here and not boats and you'll seal the edges anyway. I prefer finishing with two coats of TiteBond2 waterproof glue. The first coat fills the pores, and once lightly sanded and covered with a second coat, leaves a very smooth base for your paint. For paint I prefer a quality flat interior latex house paint (it's cheap and can be mixed to any color you want). For a "sand-casted" look Rustolium makes several varieties of textured spray paints that can be used to add depth to your hull.
If you build out of decent plywood and finish as described you will not have to fiberglass or otherwise spend an inordinate amount of time working on the exterior finish of your tank. Steve Tyng --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You are currently subscribed to the "R/C Tank Combat" group. To post a message, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe, send email to [email protected] Visit the group at http://groups.google.com/group/rctankcombat -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
