"Wood bark terrain -- Any prep before painting?" Topic

Let it dry out completely first (although it may crack or split)? Wash/clean it somehow? Brush with diluted white glue to seal? Thanks.

There may be some store bought craft or scenic barks that you could begin working on straight away. If we're talking stuff collected from the yard, or store bought garden mulch, or anything that you get that's wet or still "green," I'd use the disinfecting and fixing prep advice contained in the guides and YouTube tutorials for using cork bark that should turn up if you search the archives in here. There could be active molds growing in or on the bark that can be quite bad news if not resolved properly.

Anything that comes from the yard, should go into the Microwave for a bit to kill all the living organisms residing inside.
If you do this, DO NOT WALK AWAY from the Microwave.
Stand there and watch because wood will burst into flames if left on too long or at too high a temperature.

You want to kill the bugs, not be the butt of the "Hey, did you hear about the guy who burned down his house making terrain" jokes.

Once you are finished, spray with Dulcote or whatever sealer you use. This will seal everything nicely.

DOH! I had not thought of the microwave. Wife bought a wooden decorative knick knack. The next day we noticed a fine powder under it. Cleaned, next day there was more powder. Ok, so there's a critter in there somewhere (could not find a hole or where the powder was coming from). Ended up chucking the whole thing not to risk a household infestation.

May be the freezer to kill whatever may be there..

My buddy prepared a big batch of wood bark pieces by -- CAREFULLY -- baking them in the oven at like 200 Fahrenheit for 10 minutes or so. It zaps all the moisture and kills any creepy crawlies.

Freezer won't do it. I left the wife's project outside in 20-ish degree weather. Little sucker took a nap and started up again a few hours after coming back inside.

I agree with oven or microwave but would add a dilute coat of uPVA glue once 'cooked'.

Tony

I primed my large tree bark with Gray auto primer. Several good coats, then stained it black, drybrushed and sealed. Maybe I got lucky. I never would have thought about the bugs until this post. Maybe if you wrapped the wood in a moist cloth rag, there would be less chance of a fire in the microwave?

Bark chips are from a bag from hardware store. So okay or nuke?

As the head Mafia guy said when asked if someone could be trusted.

"Why take a chance?

Bark is bark and the hardware store doesn't know that you're using this for terrain. It's outdoor stuff used in gardens, which are full of bugs.
Just think about how miserable your life will be if your significant other discovers that you've infested the house with something because you used unmicrowaved bark chips.

A regular fridge freezer just does not get cold enough, I have had success with a chest deep freezer with killing insect eggs in foods like couscous and flour, just leave it in there for a week or so to be sure.

Not so good with molds and fungus, plus there are probably cold adapted insects that can survive the deep freeze o give them both the oven treatment (212F/100c plus a bit)and the deep freeze

I never say no with geometry dash subzero because it's my favoeite game.

Workable Fixative might be another idea for a sealant coat.

It's sold at art stores. You use it to "seal" a piece of art so you can do other work on top of it. So, you might spray it over chalk then continue with more chalk without risking smudging what is below. Same with watercolors overlaying instead of bleeding back into the earlier paint.

Of course, it is specifically designed to be painted over, so it takes paint well.