Did I Mess Up? I sanded: Oh, NO!

[HalfScaleDollhouseLOVER 16]

Hello,

I've been reading that a person should not sand before painting with at least a primer. But my half scale RGT Front-opening Country Victorian arrived so rough and I was getting splinters from handling it. Besides I heard that Brown paper can be used to sand a dollhouse and my kit arrived covered in the stuff. I thought it would be the best to kill two birds with one stone and I used the brown paper to sand it down.

Some pieces are still a little tougher than I would have liked, but I just saw the recommendation that a person not sand until after painting a first coat.

Did I ruin my kit?

So concerned! Thank you!

[Ken 513]

 Not seeing exactly what you are talking about, Sanding is just fine you want to sand before you prime even after priming you can sand again to smooth that out, and if need be a second coat of primer then sand again before paint. A good paint job takes a lot of prep work to make it nice and to have it last.Keep in mind the coats are thin coats do not glob it on trying to hid something those areas will take care of themselves as you build up coats.

 

[Debsrand56 1838]

I don't think you ruined your kit, especially since you only sanded with brown paper, which gets off the fuzz and splinters, but shouldn't drastically alter your pieces.  If you'd gone crazy with a hand sander and 100 grit sandpaper, maybe. . . .   Otherwise, you should be fine.  Often, it's just easier to sand after the first coat of primer, because sometimes sandpaper just continues to rough up bare wood.  Does your house have milled-in siding?

[havanaholly 10551]

Not sand before priming or painting?  Well that's a new one on me.  I not only sand rough spots first, if I'm not going to stain I will also give the rough stuff a skim coat of spackle or drywall mud and sand that smooth before priming or painting.

[Mid-life madness 1866]

I think MDF tends to get fuzzy if you sand it before priming.....Since paper bags are not coarse like sandpaper, you are fine. Try priming MDF with a shellac based primer. Zinser makes a white one.

[HalfScaleDollhouseLOVER 16]

On 2/12/2019, 5:20:32, Mid-life madness said:

I think MDF tends to get fuzzy if you sand it before priming.....Since paper bags are not coarse like sandpaper, you are fine. Try priming MDF with a shellac based primer. Zinser makes a white one.

Oh, THANK YOU! I'm so relieved!

On 2/12/2019, 3:09:21, havanaholly said:

Not sand before priming or painting?  Well that's a new one on me.  I not only sand rough spots first, if I'm not going to stain I will also give the rough stuff a skim coat of spackle or drywall mud and sand that smooth before priming or painting.

It tends to bring out the roughness of the wood if sanded with sandpaper is what I've been reading.

On 2/12/2019, 2:37:24, Debsrand56 said:

I don't think you ruined your kit, especially since you only sanded with brown paper, which gets off the fuzz and splinters, but shouldn't drastically alter your pieces.  If you'd gone crazy with a hand sander and 100 grit sandpaper, maybe. . . .   Otherwise, you should be fine.  Often, it's just easier to sand after the first coat of primer, because sometimes sandpaper just continues to rough up bare wood.  Does your house have milled-in siding?

It does not have milled-in siding. Is that a positive in this case?

I'm hoping that I just got rid of the rough bits and can now prime, and then take sand paper to the kit after the primer.

On 2/12/2019, 2:32:32, Ken said:

 Not seeing exactly what you are talking about, Sanding is just fine you want to sand before you prime even after priming you can sand again to smooth that out, and if need be a second coat of primer then sand again before paint. A good paint job takes a lot of prep work to make it nice and to have it last.Keep in mind the coats are thin coats do not glob it on trying to hid something those areas will take care of themselves as you build up coats.

 

On 2/12/2019, 5:20:32, Mid-life madness said:

I think MDF tends to get fuzzy if you sand it before priming.....Since paper bags are not coarse like sandpaper, you are fine. Try priming MDF with a shellac based primer. Zinser makes a white one.

Thank you Mid-life! I'm going to get a good primer, but I was unsure which one to go with.

Thank you, Ken about the thin coats. I was wanting to go slow with the paint job on the kit to make everything ready for wallpaper, siding, wainscotting and shingles.

I've been reading if a person sands with sandpaper before doing any type of pre-coat painting that it can raise the roughness in the grain and make it near impossible to get it smooth again.

But people have also been telling me here that by using the brown paper bag instead that this won't happen.

It's my first real dollhouse and I'm so nervous! It's just such an adorable kit and half scale isn't as easy to locate items for so I'm Collecting some nice pieces very slowly that I want to go in a lovely home.

I just don't want to mess it up! *Sheepish*

[Debsrand56 1838]

3 hours ago, HalfScaleDollhouseLOVER said:

It does not have milled-in siding. Is that a positive in this case?

I just asked because my first house (the RGT half-scale bungalow) had milled-in siding, and I remember they said to paint the siding right away to help protect it as you worked with the pieces.  Apparently, it's quite soft and mars easily. So I guess, in this case, not having milled-in siding is a positive.   And don't be nervous!  You are being careful and taking the time to learn.  I'm sure you'll do just fine. 

[HalfScaleDollhouseLOVER 16]

17 hours ago, Debsrand56 said:

I just asked because my first house (the RGT half-scale bungalow) had milled-in siding, and I remember they said to paint the siding right away to help protect it as you worked with the pieces.  Apparently, it's quite soft and mars easily. So I guess, in this case, not having milled-in siding is a positive.   And don't be nervous!  You are being careful and taking the time to learn.  I'm sure you'll do just fine. 

Thank you so much! I'm excited to start, but not as nervous. I did find a full scale dollhouse that I want to ask the members about though that I'm THRILLED to have found.