Okay, in the last couple of days I’ve been getting my 1/32nd Trumpeter Avenger ready for painting and I have recently moved from Tamiya to Vallejo paints. I’ve spent the better part of a year getting this bird done and now that I can see light at the end of the tunnel I’ve been inundated with advice and seen enough videos on youtube about how bad Vallejo primers are and that it will spell disaster for the project. I’ve been told that Vallejo and Tamiya don’t play well together and so as not to have wasted a good junk of money spent on new Vallejo projects, is there a substitute primer that will work with Vallejo paints?
Pros: Lays down great, self-leveling, excellent detail preservation. Given a lot of time, will cure to a hard and durable state.
Cons: Doesn’t adhere well IMO and I don’t trust it for exterior surfaces that will need to be masked, or might be in danger of scratching during construction.
It’s my primer of choice Vallejo black surface primer) for aircraft interiors where I want a dark base cost under the color, for example.
For aircraft exteriors, my current primer of choice is also Mr Surfacer. I shoot mine on with a/b because of my poor rattle can skills. I’ve also used Tamiya primer under Vallejo but prefer Mr Surfacer these days.
AK Interactive’s white primer shoots really nicely for me, is acrylic, bonds decently when laid in lightly, and plays beautifully with Vallejo paints. Everyone’s got their own preference, and that’s mine.
Thanks to all, at least it’s not all doom and gloom as per some of our peers- this gives me some options since I have most of the products mentioned in my stash. Stay tuned I will let you know what happens.
I use Stynylrez from Badger. Works great. Acrylic, sprays without thinning, no odor, and you can even sand it which I was never able to do with Vallejo’s primer.
Another happy Stynylrez user here. I also keep some Alclad surface primer around and some of the AK Interactive.
Stynylrez is my main primer now, though. This is the primer I settled on during our FSM discussions a while back when comparing Vallejo, AK, the Alclad and others, in our search for a good Acrylic primer, for all of us that didn’t want to have to prime with “smelly” primers and then paint with acrylics.
As John says, you can sand it, it has no odor,and he left out out fast it dries.
Rex, you have actually ordered from webairbrushes.com I presume? Thanks for the link, this stuff is really hard to find and I never would have otherwise.
I’d really like to try Stynylrez, thanks to all for the discussion. It concerns me though that all the raving reviews and utube videos I’ve found are by miniatures painters.
So I’m curious, you mention you keep some Alclad and AK Interactive around. Does this mean there are applications that you prefer not to use the Stynylrez, and if so, why? Do you find the adhesion, detail preservation, scratch and lift-off resistace as good as solvent-based primers? Same question to you, pilot john.
I’ve yet to find a solvent based primer I don’t like, but spraying it in my workshop/bsmt really bothers me.
I would answer that I use the Vallejo on armor as I rarely need to sand after priming and I bought some Vallejo so I just don’t want to throw it out. It levels very well and you can spray away into all the nooks and crannies on the armor surfaces. The AK primer I have not used since as I didn’t think it provided me any reason to switch. I do remember the AK being like the Vallejo in that it goes on wetter than the Stynlyrez. I realize there are lots of preferences and experiences, but having given either the Vallejo or Stynylrez 24 hours to dry, I have only had one case where the paint peeled when masking and I am pretty sure I had some debris on the surface when I sprayed the primer.
I use Model Color and Model Air 95% of the time. The rest is Model Master from Testors and then a small amount of Tamiya. I have even sprayed Model Air on a well cleaned bare plastic surface on cockpit interiors and wheel wells (I used RLM04 and RLM66), and never had a problem with peeling when I was handling and assembling. I do always wait 24 hours between coats and/or handling. I live in Arizona so the humidity is very low and that will help the drying. I also don’t know all the chemical interactions and how that might effect things, but I think with Golden Acrylic Medium, and also a drop or two of Flo-Aid from Liquitex. I avoid water as a thinner as it can allow the paint to break down if you put too much in. I have found that the acrylic medium (which they say is an acrylic binder without any color) allows me to thin it way down with no loss of consistency to the color.
Sorry, that was more of a story than you asked for but I was on a roll:)
John, you never have to apologize for long posts to me. It takes words to convey thoughts, and I appreciate your detailed reply.
That thread you linked to is AWESOME! How in the world did I manage to miss it? Thanks very much for the link!
Just FYI I’ve also been using primarily Vallejo Model Air and Model Color for about a year and a half, and have gone through the disappointing learning curve with sanding Vallejo. I’m surprised you found the Vallejo sanded as well as it did with the finer grits.
Thanks again for all the great info, John!
Rex, you answered my question about your already having ordered from webairbrushes with no problems in the thread John linked to.
So who has an opinion of scratch and scrape resistance of the best acrlic primer and a good solvent based primer like Mr Surfacer, Alclad, or Tamiya? Am I correct in assuming the solvent-based ones would be more durable? So in the end it sort of comes down to how badly we don’t want to spray solvent-based primers indoors??
Greg, I just saw your post, but, I am glad you found that part of the answer already.
My intent is to use the Stynlyrez primer 100% of the time,I like this Gray bottle so much that I intend to buy their largest bottle of White and use that for the bottom of my USN models.
but, before I bought it, I already had the Alclad and the AK interactive. I have about 10 others, also. I will use the Alclad and the AK if I find myself in between orders if I run out of the Stynlyrez.
I have to build and paint indoors these days,unless I want to take the Alclad out on the porch and spray that out there. And I did that for a few years back in the day, and already know all the wonderful model ruining things that can happen when spraying paint out in the open, lol. I just can’t make myself throw out all the primers that I have purchased in my search for one that I can use and that I like.
I have a sort of “get out of ‘smell jail’ free card” to use the very fine Surfacer-Primers that came in jars, but that is because we had to agree to use putties indoors, as long as they get used as sparingly as possible.
Plus, they are each useful FS Grays when they dry. (both Mr Surfacer 1000 and Mr PrimerSurfacer 1000 smell like the best tradition of Lacquer/Enamel based hobby products)
I would be interested in knowing if anyone learned how to get the Vallejo PolyUrethane primers to go on and not shrink quite so much into a “paint membrane” on their models. I bought the big tall bottles of their Gray and their White, in addition to a smaller bottle of their Olive Drab,and I would like to use them at least as paint, instead of just as a method of holding the paint rack down.
I have Vallejo, AK, Stynlyrez & Tamiya primers. AK and Stynlyrez are tougher than Vallejo. However, Tamiya primers beats all of them in terms of adhesion, toughness & spray-ability. Acrylic primers are not as good as solvent-based primers.