A few years ago I bought an old Revel/Monogram F14-A model at a charity garage sale for 25 cents. (Score! [Y]) I took it home and primed it with a grey rattle can primer. I finally got around to taking it out again last night because I have another model waiting to be air-brushed (and I’m a bit nervous about the whole thing).
I noticed the that the primer on all of the parts is really matte and it feels rough. You can see the stippling when you look at it and it feels kind of like fine-grit sand paper. It even seems to be holding dust with the texture. I don’t think it’s a big deal with the smaller pieces but I think it could be on the larger pieces, especially the large flat pieces.
Primers are suppose to do just that be a fairly rough surface to allow paint to bind to it. Wet sanding with a polishing stick will ease the roughness and level the surface. Any texture you see on the primed surface is probably orange peel effect…rattle cans are known to do that…again a light wet sanding will resolve that.
Again I suggest watching television, especially those automotive programs about restoration and customization. They show how to prepare the body, prime and paint…including the sanding steps necessary…these same processes are used in scale modeling too!
I don’t know if that’s orange peel - sounds more like dusting (air turbulence causing paint particles to dry erratically, leaving that rough, gritty surface) to me.
As the others have said, wet sanding with a fine grit paper should knock it down no problem.
In the future, you may want to try soaking the rattlecan in warm water before you spray it, or decant and airbrush.
I’ve been playing with primers ever since I got back into modeling last summer, and I keep coming back to Model Master primer (in the bottle). Seems to give me the most consistent finish, and I have yet to have problems with paint lift that I’ve experienced with a few others.
Thanks for the responses. I think Doog is right, it seems more like the dusting and the paint was probably cool as it was in the basement. Looks like I’ll have to bring out the sanding sticks and clean it up a bit. [|-)]
