Monday, December 5, 2011

Primer(al) Rage

Hey - look what the primer did! Greg: "Motherf****r!!!!"
I thought this project would be pretty straightforward.  WRONG. I was priming the model in my garage this past Friday evening with my (previously) trusty Krylon flat black spray.  I gave it a coat, and left it to dry, as usual. When I went out to collect the model a little later, I was surprised to see a f**ked up crackle-type surface had developed on the primer. 

I've had bum primer before, but never with Krylon.  The weather has started to change to winter, so maybe that was it? The ambient temperature in the garage would have been about six degrees celsius that evening - hardly the worst that will happen this winter. What the F***??????

This would work if I was trying to paint a vehicle for one of the lame Chaos factions (look - a Slaneesh style overcoat to ensure fashionable drool resistance on the battlefield!), but I was pretty horrified of what this might do for the boring blue paint scheme employed by my Imperial Guardsmen.

I didn't want to throw out the model, so I painted some black acrylic on and hoped for the best....at least it wasn't a squad of plastic troops!

Anyone know what caused/causes primer to pull this kind of reaction?

5 comments:

Bill said...

Did you wash it before priming? It could be due to mold release preventing the paint from adhering. Or maybe the model was cold, did you leave it out in the garage the night before?

Chicago Terrain Factory said...

I don't think I've ever seen primer do this. I've see fuzzy primer. I've seen pools and drips from unshaken cans. I prime in cold weather all the time & never had a problem like this.

The closest I could imagine would be if the model was dripping with mold release - and then the primer fails to stick in the areas around detail - not on the flat surfaces. And GW does not use mold release on their plastic kits...

Greg B said...

Hi Bill,

I did not wash the model before assembly. I know some folks do this with the plastic kits, but I never have and I have not encountered a problem like this before.

I did not leave the model out in the garage the night before, but maybe it was colder than I thought - do cold temps create this?

Curt said...

Yep, its probably the cold. I find Krylon to be pretty specific about ambient temperature. Had this happen to me as well when I was priming during the late autumn.
Hope you can salvage it, bummer.

Curt

Wes said...

I have had this my self on GW products in the past. And it turned out to me mold release. At the start of a run, they may apply more mold release, and you might have gotten that one. I have used this brand of spray my self and have never had issue with cold. I have had the primer flake off from the cold but not crackle. What I do is use my heater room. I store my paints in there, and models for winter work.