Miku_matt Posted July 18, 2015 Share Posted July 18, 2015 Hi all, This is my first post outside the new members section so I apologise if this is the incorrect place to post. I just wanted to start off by asking a few questions about using surface primer! First off I was wondering how long should I leave newly primed pieces before I paint them? over night? I started builing my Tamiya Mustang this afternoon and primed the first few pieces of the engine ready for painting. I was also wondering do I need to sand the primed pieces? if so, even tiny pieces or just larger surfaces? Thanks for your help in advance!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phildagreek Posted July 18, 2015 Share Posted July 18, 2015 I prime/undercoat everything. I usually use thinned light grey Humbrol enamel & would leave it 24 hours at room temperature before handling it & painting. Certainly totally dry to the touch. There is nothing fast about my modelling! One of the reasons I prime/undercoat is that it shows up every fault or problem. So if you need to remove blemishes then sand away, I would argue against sanding for the sake of it, if the surface is good before undercoating then it should be good afterwards. You're trying to create a "perfect" surface for your final coat & best of luck with that! The more paint you apply then the harder it gets to fix any problems. Hope it helps. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grayson Posted July 18, 2015 Share Posted July 18, 2015 I prime/undercoat everything. I usually use thinned light grey Humbrol enamel & would leave it 24 hours at room temperature before handling it & painting. Certainly totally dry to the touch. There is nothing fast about my modelling! One of the reasons I prime/undercoat is that it shows up every fault or problem. So if you need to remove blemishes then sand away, I would argue against sanding for the sake of it, if the surface is good before undercoating then it should be good afterwards. You're trying to create a "perfect" surface for your final coat & best of luck with that! The more paint you apply then the harder it gets to fix any problems. Hope it helps. The 24 hour advice is spot on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miku_matt Posted July 18, 2015 Author Share Posted July 18, 2015 (edited) I prime/undercoat everything. I usually use thinned light grey Humbrol enamel & would leave it 24 hours at room temperature before handling it & painting. Certainly totally dry to the touch. There is nothing fast about my modelling! One of the reasons I prime/undercoat is that it shows up every fault or problem. So if you need to remove blemishes then sand away, I would argue against sanding for the sake of it, if the surface is good before undercoating then it should be good afterwards. You're trying to create a "perfect" surface for your final coat & best of luck with that! The more paint you apply then the harder it gets to fix any problems. Hope it helps. Thankyou very much for your informative post phildagreek! Im really in no rush to finish so Im ok with slow progress! So only sand if required.. ok cool. And can you give any tips for painting these small parts? Im guessing very little paint on the brush is best here? Edited July 18, 2015 by Miku_matt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black Knight Posted July 18, 2015 Share Posted July 18, 2015 You may not want to sand but give the primed surface a hard rub over with a piece of denim cloth. This is coarse enough to smooth the paint even more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3DStewart Posted July 18, 2015 Share Posted July 18, 2015 (edited) I have never used primer on a plastic kit in my life. In my view it's an activity that introduces an unnecessary new step that can go wrong. Very occasionally I've under-coated with light grey to kill vividly coloured plastic (Matchbox kits typically), but that's all. Even Alclad doesn't need a primer. Start with a light coat of Alclad to reveal any imperfections and then use very fine wet and dry (1200 grit or finer) used wet. The same principle applies to other types of paint. Go straight to the top coat and if necessary rub it down before reapplying. What is important is to remove any finger grease and dust before painting. I wash mine in washing up liquid with an old toothbrush, followed by carefully drying with a lint free cloth and air drying for at least 4 hours before painting. Stewart Edited July 18, 2015 by 3DStewart Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phildagreek Posted July 19, 2015 Share Posted July 19, 2015 I paint everything by brush, I've never mastered the airbrush, probably because I started out with cheap & nasty ones that ran from a can in my "yoof". I paint as much as possible on the sprues or glued on toothpicks before assembly & build lots of sub assemblies. Whilst it goes against all my natural instincts I do read through the instructions first! And if you're not going to see it when built then why paint it? Following a comment on here, I've experimented using marker pens for some painting. Black is particularly good, especially for road wheels on AFV's, give them lots of drying time before varnishing though & don't use them for pre shading & panel lines, that's not a success story! And for reasons I don't understand, Matt black is a great undercoat for silver / aluminium colours. Hope it helps. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Work In Progress Posted July 19, 2015 Share Posted July 19, 2015 For further discussion about general painting technique (as opposed to questions like the colours of specific WW2 aircraft) then you will find lots of information in the dedicated sub-forum for the matter here: http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/forum/16-paint/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
825 Posted July 19, 2015 Share Posted July 19, 2015 And for reasons I don't understand, Matt black is a great undercoat for silver / aluminium colours. Hope it helps. Gloss black also works really well. I don't know the science but it probably gives firstly a smooth base to build on and provides a surface to act like a mirror. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stonar Posted July 20, 2015 Share Posted July 20, 2015 Gloss black also works really well. I don't know the science but it probably gives firstly a smooth base to build on and provides a surface to act like a mirror. I'd say that gloss black is a necessity under any of the Alclad highly polished finishes. I don't know why it works either, but it does. Generally priming will show up minor imperfections which might otherwise be missed, at least by me. Someone else made the same point above. Fixing something which has had a light bit of priming is an awful lot easier than fixing something you find after final painting. Here's an example where I've grafted an entirely new tail onto a Spitfire to convert it to a floatplane. The primer definitely helps to highlight flaws. Cheers Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
griffsrw Posted July 21, 2015 Share Posted July 21, 2015 i always prime, it's my first quality check, thin coat of primer will show up any imperfections before commiting to top coats. i do cars so its a bit more critical. i tend to use halfords or hycote primers (uk). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Work In Progress Posted July 23, 2015 Share Posted July 23, 2015 I like to prime anything that's seen significant amounts of glue, filler, sanding and hacking about, as it highlights the inevitable need for rectification before I have to mask any demarcation lines. I will also prime before using car aerosols. Anything that needs to be finish-painted red, yellow , orange or dayglo gets white primed first to enable these frequently somewhat translucent colours to work properly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miku_matt Posted July 24, 2015 Author Share Posted July 24, 2015 Thats some really great input guys thanks to everyone who posted here! I have read each of your reply's with great interest Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now