painting 1/1200 scale metal ships

I used to collect those many decades ago.  The type of paint isn't important as long as you use a good primer.

Bill

I second Bill's statement.  Die cast metal (pot metal) is best primed with a good metal primer.  Once primed the type of paint is then irrelevant.

I second that, too.  I cast and paint toy soldiers, using white metal of various mixes (tin, antimony or bismuth and lead).  I use automotive primers.  I used to use Rustoleum, but found that Walmart's store brand (whose name has changed over the years) works just as well, and a can goes farther, and is cheaper, than Rustoleum (or Krylon, for that matter).  I even us it as my primer for plastic and resin.

If I recall correctly, in earlier posts you may have favored Krylon grey primer. Would that work and would a Tamiya fine surface primer be suitable for metal as well? The detail work can get covered up easily. on this scale(1/1200) .

P.S. enoyed your good article in FSM on making one's own decals.

Chili

If I recall correctly, in earlier posts you may have favored Krylon grey primer. Would that work and would a Tamiya fine surface primer be suitable for metal as well? The detail work can get covered up easily. on this scale(1/1200) .

P.S. enoyed your good article in FSM on making one's own decals.

That looks like me, so I'll field this- yes, I use Krylon primer.  And responding to a previous post about the price of Krylon primer, I used to get it at Michael's Craft stores, with their weekly 40% off coupons.  However, I now find that Walmart handles Krylon, and  the primer there is regular priced equivalent to Michael's with coupon.

I, too, have used Kryoln with success. You just have to be careful using spray cans as the volume of paint can be overwhelming on such a small scale. Also, I was in my LHS yesterday before the storm hit and I noticed a new RoG 1/1200 USS Nimitz that looked pretty good for the scale. You should check it out.

Bill

Thanks to all for the advice