Plasti-Kote White, Sandable Primer

I build 1/48th scale aircraft and last summer had just begun to use pre-shading of panel lines as part of my developing weathering techniques. I began to look for a good primer that would help in the finishing of joins and as a suitable base for the pre-shading process. In mid-2005 I paid a visit to our local hobby shop and had a discussion on primers with one of the Owners. He recommended a white, sandable primer as produced by Plasti-Kote. This was used by local figure painters. I was told that I could find this product at WalMart in the automotive department.

On the way home from the hobby shop I stopped at WalMart and found the primer. It was priced at $3.87, for a 12 oz rattle can. The label showed that it was a “fast dry lacquer, wet or dry sand, and adheres to bare metal”. I was much concerned about the “lacquer” labeling, but the gentleman at the hobby shop said it would work on plastic, so I made my purchase and went home to give it a try. I have also looked for this primer at other local discount retailers (not automotive supply house) and have not found one that carries this product.

Rather than experiment on a model in progress I decided to first try it on a spare bottom wing that I had from the Hasegawa Rufe kit. I used rings of masking tape, sticky side out to hold the wing on a spare piece of foam board. After shaking the can for a minute to thoroughly mix the
contents I began to spray the wing. I started with light coats to observe any reaction. Nothing negative was happening to the plastic surface, so I applied a semi-wet coat to the wing. The drying process was fairly short, but I did use a piece of foam board to fan the surface to help speed up the process.

The primed finish was extremely smooth to the touch, not as smooth at the bare plastic, but smooth none-the-less. In fact if I did not know that the part had been primed I would have thought it was white plastic. After this successful test I used this primer on a Tamiya P-47 that was in progress. Same results. Since I normally spray acrylics, I allowed the white primer to thoroughly dry for 24 hours before I applied the preshading, followed by the finish painting. The primer formed an excellent bond to the bare plastic, and was an excellent base for the painting process.

I was sold on this product, but I continued to look for alternative primers.

Rust-Oleum Painter’s Touch

While shopping recently at a local discount store I spotted a can of Rust-Oleum Painter’s Touch in the paint department. Again, a 12 oz rattle can, labeled for “use on bare or painted wood, metal, wicker and MORE! This sounded interesting. This product was priced at $3.19.

Again, I decided to experiment on spare parts: the results were identical to the PlastiKote.

But here I decided to carry the testing one step further. I found a few spare resin parts (the tan variety) as well as some spare plastic parts that had been painted previously with acrylic paints. I planned to test both primers on these parts so I made up two sets of test samples. I was not as careful with this test as I was with the original as I applied the primer in a wet coat on all the test samples. Again I fanned the parts to accelerate the drying process, and again the same results. The acrylic paint had dried for several years, but there was no adverse reaction with the primer. The resin parts had an equally smooth finish with no fish eyes or other defects. All parts had a smooth surface, with all original details intact. Recessed panel lines were still evident.

I read where Krylon also offers a white, sandable primer than can be used on resin kits, but I have not yet tried this product. I may look into it.

Bottom line: both products should prove to be excellent primers for use by modelers for the finishing of plastic, metal or resin kits. The primer once applied will help the builder detect any finishing defects and will offer an excellent base for the finish painting. If applied over acrylics I
would allow the acrylic to dry for at least 48 hours, or mask that area. It may be a good idea to perform your own tests to confirm that these primers will not affect the particular acrylic paints that you use.

Do not spray this product indoors without the use of a spray booth or good ventilation. Adjacent surfaces will acquire a fine dusting of white primer.

Michael:

I have to chime in here and agree with you whole heartedly. I too use the plasticote primer, although I use the gray myself. I've been using it both on metal, plastic, and resin figures as well as on all my plastic armor and aircraft. I swear by the stuff.

They also make a a slightly thicker "spot filler" formula which is good for certain applications where you may have a nasty seam you can't get rid of. Don't use this type on fine detail though.

I'm glad to hear another has discovered the virtues of this very suitable primer.

Cheers!

John

Hi Guys,

One of my many projects is a feature about the primers I use on models (see my various reviews and features), and silver paints I use.

Here is one of the pix:

I prepared a part of a given model with each color and set them side by side for comparison. With a NMF P-47 in the works and my Finnish Buffalo primed with silver, I'll have some new pix ASAP.

That new Rustoleum FUSION works great on soft plastic figures (Airfix, AHM, MPC, today's Heller and Revell...) that are notoriously difficult to paint. I have some of those pix to post, too.

Regards,

Fred

John and Fred, thanks for the responses.

What I truly like about this site is all the information that is out there and all the people willing to share their experiences and knowledge. I have mentioned the PlastiKote primer at our local club meetings, but there has not been too much interest so far. I will bring my samples and cans of spray to the next meeting along with the information in your responses.

I will make believers of them yet!!

Thanks.

Hi all.
Interesting thread!
Just to add my view on things from my side of the pond.
I guess that most of primers you guys are talking about are either not available in the UK or branded under a different name.
Personally,,,I dust on a fine coat of Halfords Plastic Primer. I used to use the white but Ive recently switched to Grey.
UK members who want to try this,beware that the Pastic Primer tin looks exactly like the metal primer,so make sure you pick up the right one.
Nige

Hi Nige

Plasti-Kote is available in the UK. Heck! They even have it on the Isle of Wight!, so I should rephrase that and say "generally available in the UK". :-) It's good paint. Here's a UK pot of the grey stuff - and I think there's some white tucked away somewhere:



All the best

Rowan

Halfords Plastic Primer comes in three shades, the traditional grey, white, and red (red oxide). It is specifically formulated for use on the plastic trim of cars and will also stick to awkward plastics from which other paints flake off. They also sell a plastic paint that is a very similar grey colour to the primer. I think its called Plastic Bumper paint or something similar. Don't buy that by mistake either.

Many years ago when cars used to rust I used to check the wheel arches and other parts every spring for any signs of corrosion. After the usual phosphoric acid treatment I sprayed on something called david's (sic) Zinc 182 Anti Rust Coat. It seemed to be some kind of etching primer that really griped the bare steel. You couldn't just chip or scrape it off like the usual primers, you had to really sand it hard to get rid of it. I still have an aerosol tin of it which must be at least 20 years old and probably more like 25. It still works fine and now I use it on PE brass as it seems to stick better. I don't think you can get it anymore but you can get rust inhibiting "zinc" primers from Halfords which I assume must be very similar. As my 182 is nowhere near empty it will be a while before I try them out but you might find them useful for large areas of brass like instrument panels.

I find that spraying straight from the can is often too powerful so I spray it into a jar first and then put it through my airbrush. The solvent can quickly evaporate and the paint begin to thicken. If that starts to happen add some normal lacquer thinners.

Other popular paints from Halfords are:

Appliance White - meant for repainting washing machines etc but a lot of people like it for white aircraft.

Audi silver for bare-metal aircraft and I think one of the Nissan silvers makes good silver doped fabric.

Hi there

Something I think Halfords still sell is a yellow sandable plastic paint - I used to use this a lot in preparing wooden and resin-wood masters for Blueprint Models. It has great grain-filling qualities and sands to a silky smooth finish. One thing I loved was that you could actually scribe fine detail into the paint - fantastic when there's wood lurking underneath! It's probably too heavy for use on general kit jobs though, as it's likely to swamp the detail, but it's still handy to have at hand for major conversions.

All the best

Rowan

It's called Plastic Filler Primer. I've seen it used in Model Magazines to fill over deep panel lines and when a lot of conversion work has been involved. Also very useful for preparing a heavily sanded surface for a bare-metal finish. It used to be sold as touch-up paint as well. (In a tube with a brush in the lid - like TIpex.) With that you could dab some on to small areas in need of remedial treatment. A few months ago the local Halfords had some kind of revamp and now there only seem to be stone chip and scratch repair kits on the shelves.

Pasti-kote is available from Wilkos and Hobbycraft stores.