"Walmart primer has failed me" Topic

Today is a very cool day, low breeze and low humidity. I primed some figures with the walmart black 99 cents spray primer I always buy. The paint has not dried yet. It is still wet looking and tacky to the touch. This is the second time this has happened. I am not spraying to heavy or close. I can not find anywhere where it might say glossy. I have always gotten a nice mat flat black.

And the can said fast dry.

Anyone else have this happen to them?

Matthew

The temp might be the problem.

There are temp range limits listed on the back of the can, usually.

I presume you shook it up well, before use too?

I used the Wal Mart valu-cheapo Black primer last night, didn't have any ill effects. But I do it in my basement…

Damon.

Warm weather, so that is not it. Maybe it was just a bad can. As I said, all the other times it has been great.

My wife's uncle worked for Dulux Paints when he was alive. We had problems with a paint that we used on the basement floor of our first brand new house. The paint did not dry and we ended up having to scrap it off the floor from our hands and knees and then vacuum up the mushy debris with our shop vac afterwards. It ruined our shop vac. Because of this uncle, we ended up getting our money back for the paint and a brand new shop vac because the paint batch was produced wrongfully at the manufacturers end. Remember he was an expert. A couple of years ago, the same thing happened to me with a flat black Walmart primer…two cans. It had a batch number on it. I took it back to Walmart, explained the situation and they refunded my money which I then used to buy some more primer with a different batch number. Unfortunately, you will need to do the same thing. Oh, and sorry to add to your difficulties, but you will need to strip the paint off those figures and re-do them. Otherwise your lovely paint jobs will not last as the primer has not been produced correctly. Better now than after painting them. Good luck.
Regards,
Hitman

It's always best to do a "test" spray on a piece of scrap before turning the spray can on your figures! This is especially useful when using a "fresh" can, as you never know exactly where in the batch any one can was filled!

Sometimes the paint batch is not thoroughly mixed so some cans will come out with bad paint in them!

Always be mindful of the temperature and humidity limits printed on the can, and always, ALWAYS, do a test spray on a piece of scrap to avoid a bad mix!

I can not find anywhere where it might say glossy

walmart uses the same cans for gloss/matte
the caps the indicator
gloss/matte plastic respectively

That's why I buy good quality primer paint.

I've had 'good quality' primer cans fail a lot more than Wal Mart cans.

I gave up on Walmart paint. I now use Duplicolor sandable primer. It is fantstic and comes in black, white, neutral gray, and dark grey. I have figs I primed with it three years ago knocking about in my junk mini box and they are still perfect. Never a failure. (Of course, I expect someone will now post his Duplicolor nightmare just to prove me the fool! ;-)

I still go with good old Krylon gray autoprimer…

The odd can of Wal Mart paint does come out bad. But it happens way less often with that than with the more expensive stuff.

I've been priming with the Wal-Mart primer for about 14 years now. And when I say priming, I'm talking about 10,000 figures a year for about 10 of those years. I can remember two bad cans in that time. I must have been through hundreds and hundreds of them.

I've had to prime the odd thing here and there with specific colours. I've had more of those cans fail than the Wal-Mart cans. I'm guessing maybe 5 or 6 of them.

But a much smaller sample size, maybe 60 or so.

In umpty odd years, I've never has a problem with Walmart flat black.
Not to contradict Mr. Tibbles, but sandable primer is made to fill in scratches and dings on cars. It's thick on purpose and really can obscure detail on small figures. By it's very nature, it's made to fill in indents. I just can't see how that's good for figure detail.

Here's something that I do to make spraying easier. I run the can under hot water for a few minutes in the sink. Not boiling hot, just sink temperature hot. Then shake, with the can upside down, for a minute or so.

That seems to loosen up the paint and allows it to spray in a finer mist. Works for me.

Agreed with nevinsrip. If you have others in the house who object to paint being heated in the kitchen sink, commandeer an old pot or buy a cheap one dedicated to non-food use. NO COOKING THE PAINT. Just get some hot water handy. Stand the can up in only enough water to not make it float. Still lots of shaking going on. A painting session of just a few minutes can make frost on the outside of the can even in the heat of summer.

(Also sneak away an old towel for drying the can.)

Well, the paint dried. So glad. And based on replies here, I looked at the can. I had it sitting next to 2 other cans, and the cap was just a very slight bit brighter than the other 2 cans. I put on my fine print reading glasses and it says "gloss" big sigh. At least the other 2 say flat black.

Thank you all for the comments. I will take better care when buying in the future. Just because the can is in the nongloss section, doesn't mean it is.

Matthew

Hi

I was going to suggest getting a hair dryer on the figures to force dry – I have done this in the past where I had lots of 6mm figs laid on one side for priming – a couple of minutes with the hair dryer going at them and they were fully dried, this allowed me to flip them over and repeat the process – fully primed figures, ready to paint in 10 minutes!

If one can get away with it 15 minutes in a 250F oven does wonders for drying paint.

15 minutes in a 250F oven does wonders for drying paint

Beware the wrath of Angry Wife (and rightly so).