"Reaper Bones tacky after priming. Can they be saved?" Topic

Sprayed them with some Krylon flat black primer (which I thought was safe, but apparently not). They're still tacky after 24 hours. I'll give them a bit more time, but I fear they won't actually dry.

Can I spray or brush a different primer over the existing tacky coat, or do I need to strip them and start over?

Soak the figs in vinegar. I had the same thing happen with my favorite Dupli Color spray primer. After a few days of soaking, the figures were no longer tacky.

I did the same with an Ogre and simply painted on the tacky primer. Everything worked fine, the paints was fine, and dried to a normal feel. A few months on the figure has stood up to game handling normally.

I did this with my first Bones mini(same paint even). Although not the right answer, I painted over the tacky paint. If you don't mind getting some fingerprints on the base area, everything works out find once sealed.

Anymore I just paint directly on the Bones or airbrush with a black for a darker base.

Similar experience, I was using grey primer – it seemed to me that the primer on Bones took longer to dry than normal, I thought it "just wouldn't take" but it turned out OK.

Give it a little longer – if still tacky, you might want to check the primer or other conditions as the culprit (temperature/humidity/bad paint batch.)

Yeah, I hand primed mine with Gesso and a brush and they turned out fine. Seems to be a problem with most of the spray primers.

The problem is in fact with any enamel based primer or paint. The Bones figures have a vinyl based plastic, which inhibits the cure of enamel paints. In short, use acrylic based psints to prime. I personally prime with Tamiya Flat White out of my airbrush, mostly because I can then use "traditional" painting techniques.

Damon.

Oh bummer. In my experience the Bones do not need primer at all.

I have done Bones with and without primer (Gesso) and both worked fine. Never really liked spray primers anyway, and found that not all spray paints are suitable for all materials. Tried some Krylon plastic primer once and had similar drying problems, as well as coverage issues while painting. Since switching to Gesso about 12 years ago I have not had any problems with metal, plastic, or all but one type of resin (even that worked with 2 coats).

And yes, at this point your best bet is to strip them. Sorry. Hope it works out for you.

Thanks all. I've painted other Bones figs without primer, but these required a dark undercoat for the effect I'm going for. I started with Citadel black Primer and everything was fine, but ran out halfway through the batch. Followed up with the Krylon and ran into problems.

I think I'll go over the tacky bits with some brush on gesso on a test one and see if it holds up. If not, I'll give it some time (and vinegar!) before resorting to stripping.

Thanks again!

I've been thinking about picking up a few figs and I would have spray primed them. Thanks for the post and the info.

I've painted several "Bones" figures. Never needed to prime them or even wash them. Just put the paint straight on with no problem.

I've tried painting them as is, and felt that the paint wasn't grabbing onto the surface. Also the "white" of the bones shows through thin coats of paint.

That of course can be a personal choice as I have been painting on black primed figures for 20 years.

I've done some test priming and the one that works best for me is Army Painter Primer. I've seen others on the web mention this as well.

Xin

Do not use primer of any type on Bones miniatures!!! Use Reaper paints or P-3 for the base coat. Then you can use any acrylic over the base coat. Be sure to scrub the mini with dishwashing soap-and rinse throughly- before painting.

Good Luck, M--

Yes, you do not need to use primer on the figures if you do not want to. However, I find that you need to put the paint on "thicker" than what I normally am comfortable with (I thin my paint approx 50% with distilled water -- we have hard water where I am at -- and look for a good coat with 3 layers of thinned paint, rather than one layer of thick paint). If you do thin your paint, it will not "stick" but instead bead up. When I prime with Tamiya flat white, it is so that I can use thin coats of paint. This ensures the details do not become softened with too much paint, or obscured completely.

Damon.

I primed mine with either gray (tinted white gesso) or black gesso. As others have stated, priming is not strictly required, but I found I like the 'bite' that the gesso provides vs the plain bones surface.

Here is the article from Reaper about primer on bones. link

The short answer is that most spray primers do not play nice with the vinyl polymer that Bones are cast out of. I use wither Gesso or glass and tile medium to prime Bones. Be sure you give them a good bath with Dawn first. According to Reaper you don't have to wash them, but I found that the paint and primer would slide off if not washed first.

Thanks to JSears posting about the problem and TheWarStoreSweetie for providing the link. Like 79thPA, I may be buying a few Bones figures soon and I use enamel-based spray primers … which, according to the link, is a no-no.

If you wash tghem and then apply a coating of black paint they are ready to go and paint very much like everything else from that point. I use cheap craft paint, too, so it isnt expensive to prime them. You just need a big brush to get a few done at once.

Quite an article from the Reaper web site. That's customer service! Thank you for the link.

Makes me wonder if those primers for plastics would work.

Has anyone tried those first, before painting over them?

I used Vallejo Polyurethane Surface Primer sprayed through an airbrush with no problems.

Rattle can paints turned the ones I tried them on sticky and it never corrected.

I tested a piece of Bones with Rustoleum "Also bonds to plastic" primer. No problems. I'm experimenting with zenithal priming followed by washes, so painting directly on the mini won't work for me.