Primer woes

Parafilm eh? That sounds like a good tip. It obviously works well. Thanks bud. 

Thank you, the Parafilm works great for complex camo. I can push it around to the right position, stretch it over the surface then cut it, or even twirl it into strings and use them like thin tape. It never seems to lift anything and it has to be really loosely stuck for any bleed under to occur.

Frankly I don’t use rattle cans because I’m cheap! With an airbrush I‘m mostly only using up what hits the model.

I worked on those B52-D’s for a while during the war. With that black camo they were an imposing sight lined up on the flight line in the moonlight. They looked like something Darth Vader would fly before there even was a Darth Vader. I still preferred F-4s though; there was no such thing as working inside one sitting in the tropical, or California sun!

Great looking, killer camo, B-52 especially in 1/320 scale! Myself I have always used Tamiya rattle can grey primer. Forever. Maybe I'm just lazy but it works like a charm, it's quick, comes out as a really fine mist so it's nice and smooth and no clean up. I use it for everything I build. Metal, Plastic, Resin. No masking problems either.

OK, completed the plane and the Vallejo primer worked great. It airbrushed easily to a matt finish, but I found you could "BUFF" it (heh) with a cotton ball to a semi-gloss finish. It dried  to a very thin layer so no details were obscured. The MM enamels and Tamiya acrylic went on and stuck fine. For masking I used my standby masking material, which is Parafilm M. I only use tape for masking straight lines but this test I burnished some Tamiya masking tape down on the primers and left it for a while. I had no issues anywhere with the primer or overlying paints lifting. Below is the completed plane (well almost except for some decal touch-up needed). The black portions are the primer Buffed up.

Definitely a winner, I'll be using more of this primer.

I just started experimenting with the Vallejo Air primer, specifically the black one. It went on with no problems and it’s odor free. The finish is kind of satiny, but it can be buffed. Today I will start masking and painting a 1/320 Adademy B52 in Operation Linebacker camo. I’ll be using Tamiya acrylic for one camo color, and Model Master enamels for the others. That should give me some initial indication of how it holds up to different paint formulations, and how it sticks under masking.

So far the Alclad primers have been my favorites since the demise of Floquil, because they work well, and unlike  the Gunze and Tamiya ones I don’t have to thin them.  It will nice though if I can find a water based one that works well.

Thanks for all the replies everyone.

Must have something to do with the black stynylrez/mig one shot specifically. And I, too, initially didn't have any issue. Eventually clogged an airbrush with it.

Going to probably end up just going back to Mr Surfacer products, despite the lacquer...

I feel for you.  Many years ago I learned about Krylon Sandable Primer, from the old Newsgroup rec.models.scale, before I joined the finescale forums. It became my goto primer.  But then, they dropped that product and introduced several new primers, non of them that good anymore.

I have tried several Rustoleum primers and now use their metal etching primer.  However, I bought Tamiya's primer in spray can, and am giving that a good test. Expensive, though. Much smaller can at more than twice the price.

I have also used a Duplicolor (spray can auto touchup paint) primer, and it works pretty well.

Just to comment on Stikpusher's post, I find both of the primers he mentioned to be as close to perfect as one can get.

The only reason I don't use them more often is I spray inside and don't have a ventilation system, otherwise they'd be all I'd use.

I have had best results with Mr Surfacer and Tamiya’s Liquid Surface Primers, white & gray. I thin them all with lacquer thinner. After those choices, my next preference is for Humbrol enamel primer. 

Hmmm. Thanks for the input on the One Shot.

I'd like to add that the first couple times I sprayed Stynylrez black I had no problems. Then I used the grey and white for a year and wondered about the folks reporting trouble with the black. Figured they must be doing something wrong.

Then recently I've had to spray quite a bit of black and the trouble started.

I'm not done spraying black so I might try filtering the black primer through cheesecloth or whatever it is folk used. I always swore I'd never resort to that. Famous last words and all....

Wish I could help more.

Hey Greg,

Yep - it's the black one.

I recall reading that in a few places and I think I'd asked MIG once and they said it was a formulation from Badger.

I don't know anything about Mig One-shot. I'm curious what makes you believe it is Stynylrez?

I have had great results results with Stynylrez grey and white. I get some clogging with black.

Are you by chance shooting black, what ever it is?