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.
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.
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 !
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.