Mr. Sufacer and Primer Questions (post 'em here)

[kaixa]

beside to :
1. make your paint more sticky into your kit
2. cover putty after puttying seamline

is there any other use for primer ?
a friend of mine told me that it can make your paint appear as it is. He told me that when, for example painting red on white plastic and blue plastic, the result will be different. Is that true ?

[fulcy]

Yes, it's true - say you're talking about a custom paint scheme on a Gundam - and you have several parts that are red, several that are white, and several that are blue - but you want to paint them all red.  Primer will give you a neutral base coat, and when you apply paint, it will be going over the same exact color on each piece.  If you were to just paint red on each of those parts - even after several coats - if you held the pieces next to each other, you'd still see a difference between the red color of the parts...

[kaixa]

ah, so my friend is right.
thanx for confirmed it, fulcy 

[kaixa]

btw, what color of primer should i use ? grey or white ? and what's the differences between them ?

how should i wait before painting after i am done with priming ?

is there any primer that's acrylic or water based ?

thanx :)

[FichtenFoo]

I usually use gray, but keep a can of white around for under white, orange, reds, yellows, and flesh tones. Basically anything bright.

[donovan]

Can I use Mr. Surfacer 500 with Mr. Color Leveling Thinner or do I need some other kind of thinner for Mr. Surfacer? I'm over using cans of Tamiya and have 60% of my Kampfer parts left to prime before I can paint and finish up my entry. I guess I could always try it out, but I wanted to ask the pros before I go through testing on scrap. -- just to save on cleaning up my airbrush I guess.

Thanks,
(lazy) Donovan

[donovan]

I used Mr. Surfacer 500 with Mr. Color Leveling Thinner with 35:75 ratio (surfacer:thinner) and it worked really well. I originally tried 40:60 but it was having trouble coming out of my airbrush. I really like the finish and looks better than when I sprayed with the Tamiya cans.

Hope this helps anyone else looking to airbrush primer.

Back to the Kampfer grindstone...

(No-longer-lazy) Donovan

[Alpha 54]

I've searched through the thread and the details are a little fuzzy to me but will Tamiya surface grey primer fill in all the scratches left from wet sanding and will I have to sand the primer to make it smooth?(note I fine sand my parts after the inital sanding)

[FichtenFoo]

I've searched through the thread and the details are a little fuzzy to me but will Tamiya surface grey primer fill in all the scratches left from wet sanding and will I have to sand the primer to make it smooth?(note I fine sand my parts after the inital sanding)

Tamiya primer generally doesn't fill in fine scratches... at least not for me which is why I like it as a "top" primer as to not obscure details. I've found that Duplicolor makes a great filler-primer... It's at WalMart in the auto paint section and pretty inexpensive. After that cures buff with some very fine steel wool (home depot).

[Alpha 54]

Thanks Fitchenfoo that helps a lot,also after I used the primer you are refering to should I then spray over it with Tamiya primer or leave it as is?

[FichtenFoo]

Depends on what you need... if you've found errors and fixed them then another coat of whatever primer might be needed. Otherwise just buffing it smooth will help.

[Alpha 54]

How about scratches from just the 400 grit(without fine sanding) will tamiya surface pirmer fill thoses scratches in ?  Also ,the Duplicolor do I need to put it on lightly as I don't want it gum up the parts?

 

[clee-cm]

Surface primer will help fill up the scratches, grey surface primer will is heavier and will do a better  job, white primer is thinner. Spray on the primer one coat at a time, don't over coat the part you are trying to fix, by letting each coat of primer you spray on to the part dry properly, repeat if needed...

I have heard that Gunzy Sangyo Mr Surfacer is great for filling up scratches, but unfortunately, it is hard to find.  If you look at progress photos by Japanese modelers, the grey stuff they have on their models, is probably Mr Surfacer, not just grey primer...

Personally, I have not used Mr Surfacer. If you are willing and able to get and try Mr Surfacer, this may be a option.

Mr Surfacer review

[GlauG]

Why's it hard to find? o.o;  I've bought it from HLJ before, and it's turned up in a London Hobby store I've found in the UK.  If it's around in the UK, it should be found nearly anywhere. >_>;;;;

Does anyone know how Tamiya bottled primers compare to the Gunze stuff though?  I've got Tamiya liquid primer and some Gunse white base, neither of which I've used yet...

[FichtenFoo]

I didn't know Tamiya made a bottled primer. Nice. My LHS carries The Mr Surfacer in the can and bottle so it's fairly easy for me to get. I usually get the fine Tamiya primer and that doesn't fill in scratches at all which is why I also use the cheaper Duplicolor. (a few light coats will do. Coat, dry, coat, dry, buff with very fine steel wool)

The reality is that I have probably 10 different primers on hand for different tasks. Tamiya fine white for parts I'm painting in reds, whites, oranges, etc... bright colors. Gray fine for whatever. Duplicolor sandable for scratched and scratchbuilt stuff, Mr Surfacer in the jar for texturing or spraying primer indoors using my spraybooth, Mr. Metal Primer for metal parts...... and on and on.

[Alpha 54]

Alright thanks now what kind of Duplicolor primer should I use,the surface primer or the filler primer and will I able to apply bright colors to it?Also will both of these primer fill in panel lines or obscure other details?

[FichtenFoo]

I use both. The filler primer is what I use to fill in scratches and then use the steel wool on. The other is good for parts that don't need major filling.

[clee-cm]

I can't speak for everyone, but here in San Diego, it is hard to find, unless I order it from HLJ, Great Models.com, or other internet retailers. To make a long story short, a number of the Hobbyshops around the city had closed down, but the few new hobbyshops that replaced them have not had the same selection of merchandise. For me, Tamiya is very easy to get, but Gunze Sangyo's modeling supplies (except the paints) are hard to find, if I want the larger bottles of paint I have to go to the internet or drive up to L.A. or Orange County. 

  I did some checking around the internet, Tamiya Liquid Surface Primer is listed as a available item, but I have not heard that much about it. I don't know how long it has been available.

[GlauG]

Well, the Tamiya Liquid primer I found on a (UK-based) site Roken sent me to, but it basically seems identical to Mr Surfacer 800/1000, the one I have is dark grey and I don't know if there are any other colours.  My GF and I have spent the day using it to fill in pinholes on resin kits, so I consider that a decent enough test.  I'll be trying that Mr Base White soon too, but has anyone else used it? 

[Funaka]

Clee-cm-

You might ask the hobby stores that carry other Gunze "Mr." products (like paint) if they can special order the primer for you. If their distributors can get the paint, I would think they could get the other stuff, too.

Alpha 54-

Mr. Surfacer 500 can be brushed on then sanded to deal with fine scratches (although just wet sanding the part with worn 600-grit or higher will often do the trick for me). Mr. Surfacer 1200 + Mr. Levelling Thinner + Mr. Retarder is what I airbrush with. I'm still pretty new to priming myself. The 1200 goes on a lot like paint, and won't fill cracks/scratches.

Here a few questions I have, if anyone can help: 

Anyone ever spray the Mr. Surfacer 500? Is it too thick to AB? I have a Paasche VL and the larger needle, so I think I could get it through the AB, but I don't know if it will have the desired effect. I'm hoping it could fill scratches and imperfect seam fills, but I'm afraid it will also fill panel lines...

Also, I used Mr. Surfacer 1200 on the B-Club resin parts of my Astray Purple Frame. It didn't stick well at all to some parts (despite a pretty thorough scrubbing in detergent water). Gamerabaenre had a similar problem with his Hazel conversion:

"Another issue I had was that the paint wasn't sticking too well to the resin. This was even after washing the pieces in soap and water, sanding, and another washing. I used Mr Surfacer primer which has always had good effects for me over resin, but this time I just kept getting paint chips when removing the masking tape."

http://www.gamerabaenre.com/hazel_prog.htm

Also, the primer seemed to react and make clumpy stuff in a few nooks and crannies, although I can't guarantee that stuff wasn'y already there and I didn't see it before priming.

I've seen Mr. Resin, or something like tht at a LHS. What is it and would it help with the above problem?

Thanks!