polyurethane sealant

[kirkwood]

here's a stupid question. what's the best thing to seal what you've painted? i went to lowe's to get a clear sealant for the giant clown mouth entrance i cut out and painted. it's just on cheapo plywood. the polyurethane's i saw all said they couldn't go over paint. that i needed to scrape it off first. the main thing is to weather proof it. sorry, i'm sure you're thinking duh, get this ------. hehe. but i'm a newbie. oh, and the guy in the paint section was absolutely no help. thanks in advance for any advice!

[Severin]

I've always used spray urethane on all my painted items. If you want a really weather resistant coating, use spar urethane or varnish.

I've never had a problem. The only thing is that that you will get a shine, and if you're going over white paint, he coating will yellow it a bit.

[Dark Lord]

If your paint is waterbased then best to use a waterbased sealer like aquapoly urethane ( usually a blue label,just check for clean-up directions.if it says use water,thats it,if it says paint thinner then it's the oil based urethane).It is a water based sealer that will not yellow,it's not as tough as reg urethane (oil based) but if it isn't in direct sun light,then not to worry.Sun light has that yellowing effect over time.You can get it in different glosses or non gloss pending how you want it to look.What kind of paint did you use,ext,int, waterbase or oil ? If you primed & painted the whole thing with an ext paint,then your good to go.

[kirkwood]

I got Big Lots paint. haha. Cheap, cheap, cheap. It's exterior Latex Flat house paint. These are great suggestions. Thanks!

[Dark Lord]

Being that you used ext flat latex,get the gloss acrylic water based sealer & do the lips & eyes & nose with gloss,with the flat face gives it a 3D type look.

[Dreadnight]

Thompson's Water Seal sprayed on with an automobile-sized spray gun and a compressor. Doesn't leave a shiny finish, either...

[Lagrousome]

I have been coating my props with the spar urethane. A bit of a shine, but things are holding up really well!

[kirkwood]

Thanks everyone. This was really helpful. I don't mind the shine on this particular project so I'm using the spar urethane.

[airscapes]

Thanks everyone. This was really helpful. I don't mind the shine on this particular project so I'm using the spar urethane.

Spar is going to be yellowis.. hope that is ok

[drbrandon73]

just use polyurethane. It basically encapsulates everything in a thin layer of plastic. I Have used it on paper mache and it works well.

[kirkwood]

actually it turned out great. there is a slight yellow to the white but at night it just looks white.