Mr Primer Surfacer 1000

Today I decided to thin this primer some more and use my Badger 200 with .25 needle. It went very well but I see what the op was about in stating the transparent look. It took about 5-6 coats. But it looks great. I think the .25 can take where I was thinning at previously. Course with the .25 you get lighter coverage in general. I shot at 18psi flowing, 20 static pressure and even backing away for misting on I got no dry or fuzzy areas as lacquer can do. Least not with the Leveling thinner, might be different with another thinner.

Also I still was not at a 50/50 blend as the op stated being at. So I can imagine at 50/50 it must look very transparent. While I put down 5-6 coats, you wouldn't ever know it. It's on there very thin but covered. This is for the 1/16 57 T Bird interior parts that I shot primer on today.

Ok thanks to both. Sorry I missed that, OlderMG.

I use the GSI Creos PS290 0.5mm for priming. 

I don't know about the OP but I'm using the H with primers. I mentioned it earlier in the thread actually.

OM. what brush  are you using? Just curious.

Well I reshot the Mr Primer Surfacer 1000 two ways: thinned with Mr Leveling Thinner and thinned with Hardware store lacquer thinner. Shot over the AMT 57 T bird 1/16 scale styrene white using the grey primer. I  shot  the top side of the frame and floor pan, two to three coats each. The plastic is smooth there and I did not sand it. It covered very well by the second coat, it came out equally smooth where it went down wet with both thinners. I got a touch of tip dry with the hardware store thinner and where I let it dust out on the floor pan it got dry looking. Best off with Mr Leveling thinner especially over larger areas because there was non of that..  I probably thinned it 25% . And the best news, no sign of lifting or peeling with blue painters tape.  Looks great.

To me it's a keeper. The color I'm using on the body of that T birt is a light Ocean Mist aqua enamel, so I may well prime that body in this Mr 1000 after the body work is done.

Edit: After posting this I see JAM had some luck with his second round with this primer, that's awesome !

So I got my new jar of the primer surfacer and things went alot better this time around. I thinned it a little bit less and it went on good, I used a scrap plastic car body to test. For the tape test I used tamiya tape, and some 3M washi painters tape with no paint lift. I sanded the body prior with 600 grit sandpaper, primed, and left it overnight to dry. I havent tried it on metal, but I would probably use the dedicated metal primer from Mr. Hobby for that. Thanks everyone for your thoughts/tips.  

J.A. Modelworks

Ive tried it with both leveling thinner and the medium dry regular mr thinner, both work equally well. 

 

Did you try the masking tape test with both ?

Ive tried it with both leveling thinner and the medium dry regular mr thinner, both work equally well. 

As I think on this primer it's beginning to gnaw at me. I don't like that lifting with blue tape, everything else is fine. But a couple of months ago I shot a test on a bare plastic 40 ford hood using Rustoleum red paint, 2x. Yesterday I put the blue tape to that hood nice and tight and ripped it off. Nothing lifted and thats paint not primer. You could shoot flat white or grey Testors enamel as primer and do better than this primer is doing in terms of tape lifting on bare unsanded plastic. I'll reshoot the Mr again on actual model parts and see what I get. I want to do two tests on the plastic model parts unsanded, one thinning with Leveling thinner, the other thinned with hardware store thinner. The label on the Mr primer surfacer 1000 states to use Mr thinner, it doesn't mention leveling thinner.

The finish is great though and it doesn't scratch easy, weird. It doesn't even scratch easy on the edges of where it lifted off with the tape. A puzzling phenomenon to me.

J.A. Modelworks

Thanks for your input, I have a new jar on the way and it should be here by Thursday. Ill give it another go.  

 

I look forward to hearing how you make out with this batch.

Thanks for your input, I have a new jar on the way and it should be here by Thursday. Ill give it another go.  

The finish sands fine but Non detacked blue painters tape with non sanded plastic (under the primer) of the type prescription bottles are made of is a no go. The primer peeled off with ease. Detacked it was fine. The only area that lifted on the one sanded with 1500 were spots where there had been some dirt before sanding that smooth..The ease of peeling is Surprising to me where it seems so scratch resistant. Different principles at work I know and of course blue painters tape is very agressive.

I'll try this again with some old model styrene parts though, could be a different result. That probably won't be till Fri.

It will shoot with just a little thinner but you gotta push the pressure up a lot with the Paasche H and #3 tip. Didn't care for that. Try 2 parts primer to 1 part Leveling Thinner. And bump the pressure up till you get good flow, I was probably around 26 lb working pressure and it sprayed well.. I'm sure a gravity feed would need less pressure. Worked for me, covers in about three coats that still looks very thin retaining great detail and feels very smooth to the touch. Put them down wet. It is not super opaque. I shot these on prescription bottles and sunlight will let the amber through the hollow bottle. Out of the sunlight it's fine.

To those speculating on it being a clear primer, it is not. But it does take more than a single coat to cover for sure. It dries light/medium grey. The scratch resistance is great, within 15 minutes it passed a fingernail scratch test on both sanded ( 1500 micro mesh pad) and on bare plastic , no prep but a quick wipe down with mineral spirits. A little later I'll do a blue painters tape test .

The finish is very smooth if I didn't say that already. The stuff stinks ( to be expected with lacquer), it's definately not Stynylrez in that department. Good primer, I may stock it, it's primer surfacer with a good hard finish and excellent bond ( depending on the pending tape test). I assume sandible, I haven't tried that yet. But there are no 1500 sand marks to be seen in the finish so it didn't sand scratch swell or anything like that.. Got a couple of fuzzies or cat dander or something in one, so that can be the sanding test.

J.A. Modelworks

I just want to be clear, I'm not saying its a bad product. It just behaved differently from primers I have used in the past. Maybe I have to change my usual painting habits and thin it less for this particular product. I got rid of my old jar out of frustration. Ordered a new one to test some more. 

 

I just received my Mr Primer Surfacer 1000 and it looks to me almost ready to spray. It's pretty thin in the jar already so I can see maybe max 25% thinner depending on the airbrush and the tip size.  But 50/50 is what's called 100% cut and that it looks to me  would basically make it a wash consistancy. I have an athsmatic in the house today so testing will have to be tomorrow, I wouldn't want to trigger an attack and it's only about 12f outside.. I'll report back but I think my Paasche H would spray it as is right from the bottle.

This stuff is different than just the unthinned Surfacer products that have no primer designation on the label. I'm really looking foreward to this test though.

I just want to be clear, I'm not saying its a bad product. It just behaved differently from primers I have used in the past. Maybe I have to change my usual painting habits and thin it less for this particular product. I got rid of my old jar out of frustration. Ordered a new one to test some more. 

Eaglecash867

I'm wondering if its maybe just a case of it not having the same appearance as what we're used to with primers.  Maybe there is just enough pigment in it so you can see where its going, but its not meant to be opaque?  Their Mr. Metal Primer is pretty much translucent, so maybe the other stuff is meant to be as well.

 

When mine arrives I'll shoot a test and report in to this thread my thoughts. Maybe meanwhile someone else will.

I'm wondering if its maybe just a case of it not having the same appearance as what we're used to with primers.  Maybe there is just enough pigment in it so you can see where its going, but its not meant to be opaque?  Their Mr. Metal Primer is pretty much translucent, so maybe the other stuff is meant to be as well.

I have a bottle of the Mr Primer Surfacer 1000 coming, be here Tues. I'll mess around with it and see what I get. The difference between it and Mr Surfacer is the primer, it's supposed to have more grip not just for plastic models but also resins and metal. IE it should be an improved product lol. This info is according to their own web site. But we shall see. I'm not anticipating any trouble, the reviews look promising and I at this point don't know what's happening with the OP's product. My curiosity has peaked and I need a resin primer on hand anyway. I've never run into lacquer primer that doesn't behave itself, I shot barrels of the stuff in 1/1 literally, primer surfacers, grey and red oxide. The ony variable being the amount of thinner or drying rate of the thinner. I have both levelling thinner and medium dry, one of them should work in this Mr product.

J.A. Modelworks

I never mix inside the airbrush cup. I use small epoxy cups to mix everything. I don't know whats going on, I tried just plain regular Mr surfacer 1000 and it worked better.   

 

Sorry, JA, I didn't realize that there was another product called Mr. Primer Surfacer...I thought you were talking aboout Mr. Surfacer.  Yeah, definitely stick with what works for you.  Life is too short to screw around trying to figure out how to make things work like they're supposed to.  Always had good results with the old Mr. Surfacer, and now I'm using decanted Tamiya Surface Primer with excellent results.  Never tried the Mr. Primer Surfacer.

Since you're talking about mixing techniques, I'll offer mine.

I mix up batches in 46ml Tamiya jars.  Mix the heck out of the MFS 1500 and add 20ml to 20ml of SLP.  Mix the heck out of the blend on a 4Es vortex mixer with 3 mixing balls in the jar.  Mix again before each use.

I never mix inside the airbrush cup. I use small epoxy cups to mix everything. I don't know whats going on, I tried just plain regular Mr surfacer 1000 and it worked better.   

Just curious.  Are you thinning and mixing your Mr. Surfacer before putting it in the airbrush cup, or are you doing it in the airbrush cup?  I have run into issues here and there with getting a proper mix when trying to do it in the airbrush cup, so I started doing all of my thinning/mixing in paper Dixie bathroom cups before putting the paint in the airbrush cup.  Haven't had any issues since I started doing it that way.  I also do extremely thin, light passes and get good coverage.  Granted, it has been a while since I have used Mr. Surfacer, but when I did use it (mixing before putting it in the airbrush) I didn't have any issues.

Also, I recommend keeping a pad of yellow Post-It notes nearby when airbrushing.  I always start by spraying a little paint on one of those just to double-check for proper atomization and coverage...the bright yellow background gives you good contrast usually for a preview of how the paint is spraying.

J.A. Modelworks

Yeah I mix it pretty well. What I dont get is how am I able to thin tamiya primer 2:1 (thinner to primer) and it is more opaque in coverage then the primer surfacer 1000 mixed 1:1. I'm also not hosing it on mind you, building it up slowly. Im just giving this stuff a hard pass...

 

I suspect you're over thinning. I watched a video of a guy using the 1000 and according to him he only thinned it 25-30% thinner with MLT. And it was spraying fine on smaller parts,leveled nicely and came out very smooth. Worth a shot I say. I'm sure there is a simple answer to this. He wasn't doing a hose job either but fine/light passes.

Yeah the tamiya LSP is pretty thick stuff. 

^^^

In my experiece, Tamiya LSP is pretty thick (more like Mr Hobby 500) so the extra thinner makes sense.  

Yeah I mix it pretty well. What I dont get is how am I able to thin tamiya primer 2:1 (thinner to primer) and it is more opaque in coverage then the primer surfacer 1000 mixed 1:1. I'm also not hosing it on mind you, building it up slowly. Im just giving this stuff a hard pass...

If you're sure it's all stirred well in the jar then it sounds like you could use a bit less thinner. That's about it, separation and you're not getting the solids mixed in, or too thin. It should be covering nicely. The thing that bothers me is I don't know if there is such a thing as mixing lacquer primer so thin at 50/50 to the point it's transparent. At least it's something that's never happened to me.

I use 1500, so even a bit thinner.   It goes on perfectly thinned 1:1 with SLT.  I spray it through an Iwata Eclipse with a .5 nozzle and 20psi.