Primers and resin

What do you guys like for primer these days? I have been having a hell of a time finding something that works, lately. I dunno if everyone is using crap resin, or if the tinting fad is getting out of control, but I CANNOT seem to get a good surface to save my life.

I have used EVERYTHING available:



And half my garage kits get sprayed with this resulting:


Laquer, enamel... wtf. I am washing and drying parts thoroughly. I use soap and water. Same result. I use Comet. Same result. I used Westley's Bleche-wite too... All I have are crap parts and dry cracked hands.

UPOL grey Jason, its the bomb, best ive ever seen, and ive seen a lot.

Lee

Oh, use the Acid #8 BTW.

Lee

Will try it, thanks! Trying to get a TIE Fighter to look good. God help me.

To me that looks like simply too heavy of a coat? Or maybe too cold?

Surprisingly I have found the cheap Walmart (Colorplace) primer works very well... Followed by a coat of Krylon H20 that doesn't exactly go on smooth but wet sands well leaving a nice 'universal' non-reactive primer coat...

I've been using Mr. Resin Surfacer or Mr. Surfacer (1000 or 1200) by GSI Creos for as long as I can remember. I love the stuff.

Ryu

moffeaton said:

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Will try it, thanks! Trying to get a TIE Fighter to look good. God help me.

Good luck with that bro

Lee

It was a very light coat, and the can was VERY warm, repeatedly shaken, rewarmed, etc. I thought those same things too - you can see it lay down in a fine mist.. then CONGEAL and fish eye in a matter of seconds. Driving me bonkers.

It's all these new kits with grey tinted resins. I wish people would either switch back to that tan smells-like-gasoline crap resin, or STOP tinting it. At least I could freakin' PAINT the things.

Lee- yeah. I'm a glutton for punishment.

IE- that light gray you see is the resin color, and the slightly darker gray is the primer pulling back into little blobs.

I'd recommend Hycote Plastic Primer...great stuff if you can get it.

Jason, the best thing I've been able to find that comes close to the Japanese primers is Duplicolor filler primer.



Spray a mist coat on first, wait about 5 minutes then put a heavier coat on. It also has a really nice spray nozzle that lays the paint down evenly. Also, stay away from that Rustoleum stuff, it's just awful.

Dupli-Color :: Filler Primer

I used the gray stuff on Frank's viper.



After that I think the plastikote would be second, but they've changed their spray nozzle recently to where it dumps on way too much paint for models. But if you want to paint a full sized dump truck you'll be finished in no time.

UK only?

Plastikote worked great until they switched to the new label/fat white spray caps. Tried an old cap on the new can... I think they altered the formula. Sneaking suspicion that everyone has changed their formula to something "weak"?

WHY DO THINGS CHANGE?!?!? Heh.

REL - I tried the Tamiya primer AND I tried the Duplicolor that you pictured. Same result. It's the resin. I have that kit too - it's white resin. Will spray just fine.

Anyone successfully primed a newer Steve Neisen gray resin kit?

I've misted. I've waited. I've sprayed a more aggressive coat. I've warmed the resin. I'm working in a shop that doesn't get colder than 65º in the dead of winter, and last night it was around 73º as I left a heater on just for painting "safely". I paint in a spray booth.

I kinda know what I'm doing and have been doing it consistently for about ten years - it's just been in the past year that this new problem has been creeping in....

Sorry to say if you can't get the Tamiya to stick to the part nice, then I'm out of suggestions, LOL. That stuff was made on Mt. Olympus.

I KNOW!!! What the hell is Steve doing to this stuff?!?!

moffeaton said:

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I kinda know what I'm doing...

I'd say more than kinda.

Well, clearly I'm not the master of all my domain, since this gray resin is kicking my tail, heh!

How about hitting it w/ some Dull coat then priming? Might be worth a shot.....

I've had this happen in the past, and the solution for me is to lightly sand the fish eyes out then hit it w/ another coat. Then again, those fish eyes look really bad....

All the parts feel like soap, too.

This is the newest Hero TIE kit with a metal armature that I have vintage Kool Shade for, and it's for a client. So I kinda want to make it look nice.

I repeat - has anyone built one of the new-school grey resin Steve Neisen kits? TIE Fighter, Interceptor, Shuttle?

I had a small run of BadAss BSG kits do this to me a few years ago, and the culprit was mold release. In that case, the primer would sluff off in SHEETS after a day or two - it was a nightmare, but the problem was quickly fixed and I built a fresher set of parts with success.

moffeaton said:

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I wish people would either switch back to that tan smells-like-gasoline crap resin, or STOP tinting it. At least I could freakin' PAINT the things.

It's getting harder and hard to come by... I used to use that old stuff but as of last year my supplier stopped carrying all the 'industrial old school' resins in favor of the new odor free ones...

moffeaton said:

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I think they altered the formula. Sneaking suspicion that everyone has changed their formula to something "weak"?

They have, you can thank the EPA as they have targeted 'rattle cans' in the last few years...

http://www.epa.gov/ttn/atw/183e/gen/...oatings-fs.pdf
http://www.epa.gov/ttn/oarpg/t1/fact..._fs_032609.pdf

GOVT OUTTA MY RATTLECANS!!

(my new political protest sign idea)

Same do-good granola munchers that are to blame for the Tamiya primer drought we are experiencing. I'm going to pour some xylene into the watershed later this evening, to get my revenge

KIDDING! I'll light a candle and thank mother gaia for all her irritating children.

Again may I suggest the Krylon H20, I have used it multiple times to 'lock' down troublesome surfaces and being water based vs solvent it has much less chance of being effected by subsequent primer or top coats...

As I said it doesn't exactly go on all that smooth, but it knocks down real quick with a little wet sanding...