"Weird thing happened with Test. Mod. Master spray primer" Topic

Over the past few weeks I've used a couple different colors of Testors Model Master sprays.

For priming mostly Star Wars Legion, I used their Light Gull Gray and their standard flat gray primer. I also primed a GW plastic model with the gray primer.

Funny thing is that the Light Gull Gray was flawless, left a totally smooth finish on the surfaces of the Star Wars Legion AT-ST model, as well as other vehicles. The gray primer worked flawlessly on the GW plastic as well.

But a strange thing happened when I was priming my T-47 Air Speeder. When I primed the bottom of the model with the gray primer it was perfectly smooth. But when I was also spraying the top of the model at the same time I got this very fine surface texturing. What makes it weird is that I was literally priming the entire model at the same time and just flipped it over to do both sides.

Can't be because of temp. or humidity, otherwise the whole model would have had the texturing I would think. Can't be a clogged nozzle because again it would have affected the whole model!

Can't figure out for the life of me why the top of the same model would come out with a fine texture in the spray finish but the bottom of the model's finish would be smooth, and during the same priming session! I'm wondering if it has something to do with the kind of plastic that FFG uses for their SWL, just a wild guess.

Here's a pic. of the finished airspeeder where you can see the texture. It's not a huge deal in terms of the finished model . I was still able to paint and detail it. But that one glitch just bugged me:

link

Anyone else ever experienced this oddity with Testors spray primers?

It might be the angle of the spray. By accident I noticed that if I sprayed upwards or downwards rather horizontal (or as near to horizontal as possible) the texture was different.

Now that's interesting, I had not thought of that! And that would seem to make sense since the AT-ST and GW model were both models that "stood up" vertically meaning of course I could hit them from a horizontal position from the side.

The airspeeder by comparison is a flat model and so when it was on the cardboard I was spraying downward at an angle towards the model in order to hit it.

Thanks for that thought, that's some great insight! I'm going to experiment with that. It just might be a new factor in spray priming to add to my existing modeling knowledge.

I'm thinking that for a flat model like the airspeeder you would need to stand it up on its tail and support it with some poster putty or something so you could hit all sides of it on the horizontal.

Thanks again!

Have you ever tried Artist's Gesso (acrylic brush-on primer, white, gray, or black -- avoid the clear types)? It shrinks, as it dries, forming a tight skin over the model surface. Complete coverage is not necessary -- it's OK if bits of the model show through, as it really takes only a thin layer of Gesso. Worth experimenting with, to see if it will satisfy your needs. Cheers!

Were you near the end of the can? I notice that when you get near the end of the paint, it's grainy. Perhaps the spray is sucking up the bottom.

@nevinsrip,

No, it was still towards the beginning of the can which deepens the mystery.

I'm wondering if it's the actual plastic the Star Wars minis. are made out of. Reason I say that is that literally within an hour of spraying the Airspeeder with the Testors gray primer I also used the same primer on GW's Feculent Gnarlmaw model. The GW plastic had no texturing, the primer finish was perfectly smooth!

The plastic of the SWL stuff is kind of curious. It's like a semi-rigid model plastic that LOOKS like GW plastic at first glance. But it's slightly bendy as well. Kind of like a cross between ABS model plastic and toy plastic.

One additional note is that I used Army Painter white primer on the SWL stormtroopers and then a second coat of white with Testors white. Same deal, fine texturing. Not severe but enough to be noticed up close.