I’ve been painting the 1/200 Fletcher for the past week. First, I tried spraying the SC paint over an unprimed surface. After waiting 24 hours, I masked and sprayed the hull, waited 24 hours and when removing the tape (Tamiya) the paint came with it. So I stripped the paint and primed with Rustoleum, which was rated for plastic. Waited 24 hours and applied SC paint. Waited 24 hours, then applied masks and painted walkways on deck. Waited another 24 hours to remove the mask and once again, the paint came with it.
I contacted Brandon over at Squadron and he was kind of baffled. He said it might have something to do with painting an acrylic over an enamel, but he wasn’t sure. He offered me calling him next week to talk about it. I’ve ordered some of the Squadron Colors primer and will spray a coat to see how that works with adhesion.
Hi Cary,
By chance, did you wash the plastic in basic H soap or Dawn dish soap?
To me, it sounds like the plastic is releasing an oil agent which is making the paint not stick.
With that being said, I agree with Brandon, you can’t apply laquer and enamel over acrylic (water based) but you cant apply acrylic over the other types.
Once acrylic is dried, it is very hard and even tho laquer/enamel paints are dry to the touch, they are still not fully dry. Make sense?
I am familiar with Squadron Color line and I have used it without any issues.
Did you add more thinner to the paint before painting as this is already pre thinned for airbrushing?
With that being said, I’d use SCs primer and go from there.
Happy Modeling,
Mike
Thanks Butz. No, I didn’t wash the plastic first. But since the primer is adhering fully, I don’t think not washing is the problem. The acrylic isn’t sticking to the enamel primer. I’ll just spray the SC primer and go from there.
The symptoms you’re describing are usually a result of the paint being applied too heavily in the initial coats. The paint goes through a chemical process, it doesn’t just “dry” by evaporation. If you put it down too heavy on your initial coat, then the outer layers begin to cure, effectively creating a shell that prevents the bottoms layers (in contact with the plastic) from fully curing. Even after 24 hours, the bottom layers will be soft, resulting in the paint pulling off.
I always put a fairly light, dry layer down first as my basecoat, you can actually see the plastic still peeking through. I give that 10-15 minutes then apply a second coat.
Contact me directly if you need any further assistance, jefferyherne -at- gmail.com
PS: I’m the guy that actually developed the paint.
When I use acrylic paint I always use rattle can primer, it bonds to the plastic much better and have never had an issue. Did the primer lift off or just the acrylic and did you paint acrylic onto acrylic and then have the issue? I’m a little baffled too.
Way back, when I used a lot of Gunze Sanyo water based paint, I always primed with a flat enamel and I never had tape pull paint off…ever.
You can spray a testor flat enamel first the next time, and do the tape test.
Hi Jeff. I think you’re right about too heavy a coat being the problem. When I was removing the SC paint this last time, I noticed how thick the sheets of paint actually were. So, once I removed all of the paint, which left me with an intact coat of primer, I laid down a very thin coat of the SC paint. I’ll let that dry completely and then do a tape test on it. If it sticks, I’ll get on with my painting. If not, I’ll be left shaking my head.
Thank you so much for your help. Will keep you posted.
Yea, I don’t think the primer was the problem. I think I was a little heavy handed in laying down the SC paint. I have stripped it down to the primer and will re-paint with thinner coats.
Well, this has been quite a journey. The first picture shows what happened after I removed the Squadron Colors paint down to the enamel primer. I sprayed on 3 light coats, waiting about 1/2 hour between the coats. I waited 24 hours and tried a tape test. Everything was fine. So I went ahead and masked for painting the walkways. This is the result after I removed the masking. Mostly good, but there were still a couple of areas to clean up.
So I went ahead a masked a second time and touched up these areas. When I removed the masks, this is what I ended up with. It should be easy enough to fix with just some brush painting.
