base coat

i use plasticote auto primer in a can.proyects the plastic froma all kinds of paint.
matt

Tamiya Fine surface primer and their grey primer is used mainly to get rid of small blemishes after puttying and sanding. The grey one is heavier than the white one and for light coloured top coats you need to use the white one to bring out the lustre and shine in them. Otherwise the grey one will do just fine.
A base coat will also give the top coats something to hang on to and adhere better to the bodywork.
Whatever you do, don't try to use flat base as a base coat as it's a flattening agent for the gloss colours. Put in about 10% to start with in any gloss colour and see what happens after it dried. You can obtain any level of shine from the original gloss to dead flat hues. Be careful though as to much will give a frosted effect when it dries.

Good luck!
Niclas

so can i use a grey or white gloss acrylic such as x-1 or 2 as a base coat?
thx for the info on flat base. i would have never known
how long doesfine surface primer take to dry? (before i can apply top coat?) is it a lacquer product? do i clean up w lacquer thinner or something else?

QUOTE: Originally posted by donnybaxter so can i use a grey or white gloss acrylic such as x-1 or 2 as a base coat? thx for the info on flat base. i would have never known how long doesfine surface primer take to dry? (before i can apply top coat?) is it a lacquer product? do i clean up w lacquer thinner or something else?

Yupp!
It's somekind of synthetic laquer and it dries really fast. Cleans up with laquer thinner or equivalent.
I once did a hood with white primer, pearl clear and clear in less then an hour.
You could use X-1 or X-2 as base coats as long as you don't put anything but another acrylic paint on top and preferably the same brand. But the thing with the other two primers are that they full up small dents and scratches better than ordinary paint.
The white primer is really good as it takes some really heavy spraying before it conceals any surface details and still it covers really well. For bigger modifications you start with the grey one as it's a bit heavier than the white one and then use the white on top if needed for the top coats.
One funny thing with the surface primers is that enamels doesn't stick very well to them, even Tamiya masking tape will pull it off from the primer. Had that happen twice before I realized that they were not compatible with eachothers...dooh!

Niclas, signing off for today going to bed with a good book about ancient Swedish history...more wikings to the people!

good nfo i appreciate the help