OMFG Red Styrene

[tigeraid]

I hate hate hate hate Revell.

Well not really. But anyway, I'm painting up this T-bird Supercoupe, and go figure it needs to be WHITE. I've done about 4 coats of white primer and red is still showing through EVERYWHERE. In fact the overall colour is still kinda pink.

I guess I'll strip it and start over. Will a gray primer base underneath fix this? I'm trying not to waste too much paint...

[Cold_Fire]

Apply some (really) opaque paint before primer. I usually use some metallic color from gunze sagyo (silver for example) to solve this.

Regards

[pre98zetec]

did you use grey primer THEN white primer?

white primers gonna bleed right through red.

[freakray]

gray primer before white primer is the logical solution.

[tigeraid]

Ok, so grey primer seems to be the consensus. If that doesn't work, I'll try some silver. Thanks guys.

[ZoomZoomMX-5]

You need a sealer. Other colors may mask the bleed, but when you shoot white it will look pink.

Zinsser B-I-N primer/sealer (shellac based, thinned w/91% rubbing alcohol or denatured alcohol) works awesome as a sealer; you apply it via airbrush between coats of primer and color. Home Depot/Lowes and places like that carry it, get a pint/quart can of it as the spray can isn't a good solution for spraying it. It goes on pure white, dries fast, and sands beautifully. You MUST use a light coat of lacquer primer first as the Zinsser won't "bite" into the plastic.

The Porsche below was red '70's Monogram plastic and was very pink after several coats of Tamiya white primer. It's pink no longer. B-I-N was used between coats of primer and the Tamiya Pure White paint. Some people say that airbrushed Future will also work as a sealer. Haven't tried that.

[mickbench]

I've gotta agree with Zoom Zoom. You need to seal the plastic, as even with grey primer, some white primers will still turn pink if you didn't seal the plastic...

Tamiya grey primer, then white doesn't seem to turn pink, but many automotive plastic primers, even if the grey is good and even, it bleeds...

If your top coat is to be red, it really doesn't matter.. Or black or silver for that matter but for white, its critical to stop the bleed..

I hate red plastic for this very reason.... It might be good for the builder who doesn't paint their models, IE kids etc, but for those who do, its a right pain in the butt..

[tigeraid]

But regular Tamiya grey primer won't seal it at all? I've noticed that on the interior parts, which I'm painting a sort of medium gray, the grey primer seemed to do a good job of keeping the red under...

[tigeraid]

Ah, well yes, it is Tamiya grey I intend to use, not automatic primer. So I guess I'll try that, before I worry about the sealer.

And ya, the T-bird of COURSE is gonna be white. What a bitch.

[gpz900ra7]

If you decide to strip the paint off and start again try this method and you should be OK.
Primer the car with plastic primer, any colour will do, leave it a day or two to let it harden and sand it if needed, then give it a coat of satin black, this will kill any red showing itself again, again leave it for a day or two then 1 dust coat of grey primer followed by white primer, you don't need to put loads on, just enough to cover the car, again leave it to cure then start dusting coat after coat of your white top coat until you get a good even coverage, leave it for at least a week for all of the paint to cure, hopefully by then you shouldn't see any more of the base plastic colour showing through.
Red and yellow are the two worst colours for plastic to paint over unless you want it the same colour of course.
I hope this helps you out, its always worked for me in the past.


gpz900ra7

[ZoomZoomMX-5]

Gray may tend to hide the bleed; so you may still end up with pink when you apply white.

Not all red plastics bleed like Monogram plastic. I've got a new Fujimi Ferrari molded in red and it didn't bleed w/Tamiya white primer. Monogram red and yellow plastics (especially on older kits) bleed like crazy and you must use a sealer of some sort if you use anything stronger than acrylics or hobby enamels.

[SteveK2003]

Jeez, we (Car modelers) cannot get the kit makers to release newer kits, clean up the molds, cut the prices, design the kits better, print better instructions, etc. You'd think we could at least get them to stop using red, yellow, black, and blue styrene.

We need to get together and win a small battle first, then go for some bigger stuff.