PE Primer Paint

[Ian from Doncaster]

I would be grateful for any advice on what best to use for a paint primer on PE parts.  As these parts are meant to provide tiny details, I would loathe to lose the details with inappropriate paint.  For plastic parts I use a spray tin of plastic primer (from Halfords in the UK) which easily smooths off with micromesh, or sometimes I brush on thinned acrylics as a base coat.  Brushing on like this may be too much for PE?

All suggestions welcome - I have a Mirage Halberstadt in 1:48 with a fair amount of PE for my next build...

[IvotB]

For PE, or any metal for that matter, I use an etch primer in my airbrush. There are two component types and one component. They spray extremely thin, you could see the metal shimmering through, but that's enough. I use it on my brass, nickel silver and white metal models. I used it on the PE parts of the Fokker D.VII. I was amazed at the fact that although I had to give fairly sharp bends to the PE safety belts, they paint didn't come off.

I order mine at Phildie's in the Netherlands, but I am sure it is available in any country. Just try and find etch primer.

Another possibility which works fine too is to use the primers in spraycans used for car repair. The best brand in the Netherlands is Motip, it may be sold under another brand name abroad. These are mostly acrylic type, but accept all kinds of different paints on top. I didn't have any problems with that using enamels or lacquers based on nitrocellulose. The last type is my favourite for metals, but can be tricky, because sometimes it attacks some plastics. Nice about nitrocellulose is that it dries extremely fast and you can put one layer on top of the other in no time.

regards,
Ivo

[gcn]

Ian I use Alclad grey primer which seems to work well enough. I would also be wary of the spray can obliterating everything.


I have read before that Future also makes a good primer for metal parts.

Gary

[Des]

I don't prime my PE parts either, I just spray or brush them with Gunze acrylic which sticks very well and if thinned with a tad of lacquer thinners goes on really thin.

Des.

[bobs_buckles]

you could try dipping them in Klear (allow to fully cure)  before the top-coat.
 

BVB

[Ian from Doncaster]

Thanks folks, I have klear so will try that method - sounds simple....

[uncletony]

I have to agree with Ivo that etching primers are the ideal for metal parts. You can find it in spray bombs at many decent auto parts stores, but you need to decant it to use in your airbrush. You can get it in quart cans from Eastwood (or any body shop supply and a million other places) too. The finished thickness is something like .25 mil -- in other words super thin.

Alclad primer is nice enough on plastic but it contains microballs so it isn't as thin as regular Alclad -- probably closer to 1 mil.

Whether or not it really needs primer I suppose is a good question. If the part is not subject to any handling or extremes in temperature and humidity then you can <probably> forego it without much worrying.

[gcn]

To prime or not would I think be dependant upon the type of paint being used. If using Tamiya or Gunze then no need, if Vallejo or other similar paints then yes. Saying that I use the former and generally prime.

As a slight aside I paint my Wingnuts seatbelts flat on the sprue and then add a couple of coats of future at the end, this ensures that the paint doesn't flake off when forming the belts into shape, without the future i've found its flake city.

[coyotemagic]

Ian, I agree with Des and Gary on this.  I use both Gunze thinned with laquer thinner and Tamiya laquer rattle cans, depending on color availability, and have never needed to prime.  I'm looking forward to seeing your Mirage Halberstadt build.  I did the Cl.II and sprayed the entire pe fret with Tamiya IJN gray green, AS-29, in a rattle can since it's a near perfect match for RLM02 and most of the pe parts will turn out to be that color.  Brush painting or spraying any other thinned color over that worked really nicely and didn't obscure any of the detail.
Cheers,
Bud

[Epeeman]

Ian,

All I ever do is what I always do (I brush paint all my models) and that is to simply use acrylic paint - Revell 'aqua colour'.

I  use a neutral base coat, e.g. light grey followed by top coat colours - not had any problems so far.

Regards

Dave