What primer for under Enamel paints?

[Duncan B]

Normally I use acrylic paints but for my next 2 projects I will be using enamels so would like to know what is considered to be the best primer to use (if any). It will have to cope with covering the usual fillers and Mr Surfacer as well as standing up to the enamels being sprayed on top. I am guessing my usual Tamiya/Mr Surfacer/Ultimate selection would be best avoided. I do have Alclad's Micro filler/Primer but have had varying results with it in the past.

 

Duncan B

[Graham Boak]

I don't use primer, but as modern quality paints (judging on colour accuracy) don't cover terribly well I give a initial coat of a Humbrol close equivalent, smooth it down then apply colour of choice, rubbing down and repeating the top coat if necessary.

 

Long standing advice with enamels is that three thin costs are better than one thick one, which tends to work well without primer.  This is especially true with difficult colours such as white, yellow and red.

 

Halfords do a spray can of grey primer which I have used and used to be well thought of.

Edited June 26, 2018 by Graham Boak

[sapperastro]

You don't really need primer with enamels. I occasionally still use a rattlecan of Tamiya or Humbrol if I have one handy to show up any blemishes before applying paint. Just don't use lacquer over the top of the enamel.

[bmwh548]

I always use the Surfacer 1200 as primer. So far I've never had any issues with enamels and even acrylic lacquers. I always loved it because it tends to fill small sanding mistakes.

[spitfire]

I never use a primer, I just make sure that the surface is nice and clean and smooth, my normal paints are Humbrol, Xtracolor and Sovereign Colourcoats.

The only exception is when I build a resin kit then I may use Mr Surfacer.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[Space Ranger]

Mr. Surfacer 1200 is an excellent primer, as is Tamiya's Fine White Surface Primer (also available in gray). The Fine White primer is the preferred white paint for many builders of model airliners.

[degsye39]

No primer in use here, though i have used some of the new (and awfully thick may i add) humbrols as an undercoat for light shades such as 90 sky/beige green..

The only adhesion issues i have had have been with the hornby era metallic enamels (avoid these) and trying to brush paint humbrol 11 acrylic silver!

 

You should be okay with no primer but IMHO if you fancy slapping on an undercoat it is unlikely to hurt!

 

Regards mate!

[Graham Boak]

Whoa!  I understood that the problem with the new Humbrols was that they were too thin?  (Which has been my experience.)  Certainly most modern paints are considerably thinner (and less well-covering) than traditional Humbrol, but then the basic rule was never paint straight from the tin and always thin.  The more cynical side of me considers that thinner modern paints is a way of covering less models for the same money hence increasing the sales of the paint.  If the very latest Humbrol have returned to their thicker style then Hurrah!

[Nocoolname]

I returned to enamels last year in the form of Alclad Mil-Spec. I initially used them over a kit that had already been treated to a can of Halfords grey and they worked fine but as others have suggested they don’t really need a primer unless the paint specifies such (e.g. Black Base for Metals). I’ve zapped them onto bare plastic and they went down a treat.

[sapperastro]

Graham, the consistency of the new Humbrol enamels seems to have become uniformly thick. Very thick. Unfortunately. if you get a tin that is full to the brim with this paint, it is literally impossible to stir as there is no room to stir it, the paint is like toothpaste, and you will have to first remove half of it to be able to add any thinners into the tin. Perhaps putting half in a spare tin could get you two tins for the price of one. I will have to try this.

 

One caveat is the luftwaffe colours. Unless you can find a new tin, the older tins all suffered from being a translucent sticky mess. I have solved this with a few by waiting for the paint to settle completely, and tipping the carrier fluid out, then using the thick paint left behind. Improved, but still not stellar. Most of the new matt colours work well though, again so long as you can actually thin and stir it.

Quote

 

 

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

Hi Duncan,

 

If this is for your Wildcats, you can use pretty much anything under enamels or you can use nothing at all. If you simply want an even colour to start airbrush shading on top of, then virtually anything will do the job equally well. Aerosol Tamiya primer, Halfords primer, Mr Surfacer, or even plain old matt paint of pretty much any formulation that will actually adhere (that's what a primer is for afterall so maybe don't use water based acrylic paint as a primer) will work fine.👍 I often use a satin black enamel straight onto the plastic as my base coat. I have yet to find anything Colourcoats isn't happy to go on top of.

 

If you do use an aerosol primer such as Halfords, you will probably want to flatten it with Micromesh before painting on top of it because the roughness of the primer surface will show through the Colourcoats top coat otherwise and you will get that egg-shell type of finish sometimes seen and I suspect that disliking that is something we share in common.

[Duncan B]

30 minutes ago, Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies said:

Hi Duncan,

 

If this is for your Wildcats, you can use pretty much anything under enamels or you can use nothing at all. If you simply want an even colour to start airbrush shading on top of, then virtually anything will do the job equally well. Aerosol Tamiya primer, Halfords primer, Mr Surfacer, or even plain old matt paint of pretty much any formulation that will actually adhere (that's what a primer is for afterall so maybe don't use water based acrylic paint as a primer) will work fine.👍 I often use a satin black enamel straight onto the plastic as my base coat. I have yet to find anything Colourcoats isn't happy to go on top of.

 

If you do use an aerosol primer such as Halfords, you will probably want to flatten it with Micromesh before painting on top of it because the roughness of the primer surface will show through the Colourcoats top coat otherwise and you will get that egg-shell type of finish sometimes seen and I suspect that disliking that is something we share in common.

It is for the Wildcats but the information above is handy for anyone interested in trying enamels. I will probably go with what I know, I've made too many mistakes trying too many completely new processes at the same time before, so either Tamiya Primer or Mr Surfacer for the Yellow wings. The Blue Grey one might not need any primer at all depending on how neat I am with the build but normally I do like to have a primer on to unify the surface and to give me something to pre shade onto.

 

Duncan B

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

You won't go far wrong with that 👍

 

It never hurts to have a uniform base colour to start whatever techniques you wish to use from.

[Duncan B]

To answer my own question/feed back on what I did. I used Alclad's micro filler primer under the enamel paint and had no issues at all. I have also recently used Mr Paint's micro filler primer and it worked perfectly well under the enamels too.

 

Duncan B