"Clear primer— is there such a thing?" Topic

So, I have a box load of plastic Ogre/GEV minis I'd like to paint. They came as different colored plastic— blue, red, black, green, yellow, each color equivalent to a separate force. I'm thinking I'd rather not repaint them all, but retain the already existing colors, adding simple spot colors and a dark wash. I realize, however, that the acrylic paint needs something to "bond with" on the model, which is what primer is for.

Of course, primers come in colors, but is there any such thing as a primer which goes on clear (and stays clear)? Can a sealant product work as an underlying primer?
Or could I just paint in the added bits and cover the things with sealant and hope for the best… (really, I'll only be using spot colors on parts unlikely to be handled— gun "laser sights," windows, sensor dishes, antenna, missile heads— and a dark wash into crevices on the model.)

Anybody have any experience with this? The SJG models are hard plastic like classic model kits, not soft plastic, resin, or metal.

Once or twice in odd circumstances. Trying to remember when. But it seems to me Krylon Matte worked reasonably well. You'd want to avoid gloss as not providing enough bite for your subsequent painting. Plan B would involve clear gesso, but it's a brush-on, and probably more expensive.

I started painting plastic Army Men in 1998: applying acrylic paint to skin, weapons, and other non-plastic-colored bits. I sealed them with Minwax polyurethane stain, a.k.a., The Dip Technique . The Minwax and paint flaked off from the Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE) plastic after 10+ years. It comes off sooner with rough handling.

If the plastic is hard, it is likely other than Polyethylene (LDPE, or HDPE). That hard type of plastic will take primers, and sealants, like metal and resin figures.

Some options I recommend: clear, matte sealants over your painted bits; 'paint' with Mod-Podge matte (a form of PVA Glue), either before painting the bits, and again, afterwards, or see point #1; seal with Minwax urethane stain, followed by a matte clear coat.

The Dip Technique is amazingly effective… Call me, "Mr. Dip!" Been using simple block painting, followed by The Dip Technique, on 1,000+ figures (20mm-60mm), since 1998, and still going. Cheers!

Any polyurethane varnish, or clear gesso

Clear gesso?

But I have never worked with it.

A message search turns up some hits here on TMP.

A spray of Dullcote would do the trick.

I've primed plastic figures (1/72) with PVA: either PVA glue slightly watered down or with matt acrylic varnish.

In answer to your question, "I'm thinking I'd rather not repaint them all, but retain the already existing colors…"? Yes, you can utilize the plastic's color in your paint scheme.

Here are two photos of miniatures I did this with, using the plastic's color, only painting the bits that differed in color: front view of three figures, Human-sized Skeleton (fully primed, painted in the normal manner), a Giant Skeleton, and a 54mm Caveman. Paint was only applied to the Giant Skeleton's: spear, headdress, neck and shoulder wrap decoration, and his shield; the Caveman's boulder, hair, and loin cloth had craft acrylic paint applied to them. Here are the same three figures, showing their backsides; note the circles on the Caveman's boulder, spine, and left ankle, marking the injection molding sprues -- highlighted by The Dip Technique (Minwax Polyshades urethane stain, Royal Walnut color).

Only use colored primer. I use clear matte as a final coat.

If it were me, I'd use clear gesso to keep the primer from obscuring detail. If that's not much of a concern, I'd use Valspar clear plastic spray primer (assuming you can still buy it: check Lowe's in the states).

There is such a thing as clear primer.
link

A more labor-instensive way is to paint gesso only on the parts you need to paint, paint them, and scrape away any "splash" on areas you didn't want paint on… ;-)

Liquitex makes a clear gesso that is for priming colored areas to accept paint on top.

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I haven't actually used it for this purpose. I bought it to mix with acrylic paint to make colored gesso. This works but the colors I chose were streaky (burnt umber and raw umber). The whole surface was primed, but the color wasn't consistent, so I needed 2 coats. Fine but I had wanted primer plus undercoat in one pass! So I went back to white gesso and then a brown stain over that.

A second vote for Krylon Matte. I have used it numerous times and worked over it. I especially like to use it when doing flags and shields.