"Review: Rust-Oleum 2X Ultra-Cover Flat White Primer" Topic

I've been using this to prime figures lately, and I've been happy with it.

The 12-oz spray can has the "big button" nozzle that is becoming more popular these days, and seems to spray more paint in a wider pattern than the old-style nozzles. Which works well for priming.

The paint can says "bonds to plastic" and I've used it on hard and soft plastics successfully so far.

The usual "flip over the can and spray to clear the nozzle" technique doesn't seem to work, as it just keeps spraying paint instead of clearing.

The paint is dry to the touch within a few hours, but stays tacky for two or three days. That's the only downside I'm seeing.

Sounds about like my experience, except I don't remember on the "tacky for two or three days".

I use this routinely and I haven't experienced any tackiness with it.

My only tackiness was when used on soft vinyl, like Reaper Bones and Caesar. Had to eventually throw away the Bones, but managed to encapsulate the Caesar and control the tackiness with varnish.

Yes, I'm seeing the tackiness when used on soft plastics.

I have all the same experiences with this product and also the Rustoleum 2x Ultracover paints, except I've never noticed the tackiness. I've only sprayed metal, resin, and styrene models with it, not soft plastics (yet).

Note that the can says a full bond to plastic takes 7 days, so there's probably some kind of solvent built in that needs to cure (and probably does so slowly through the ever-hardening layer of paint). Maybe this chemical reaction explains why soft plastics remain tacky for a few days…?

I'll add two caveats:

• The paint comes out of the can in a really heavy flow. I primed some 1/1200 ships with it, and I probably won't do that again, since it actually covered some details and filled a few gaps. I've been happier using it on AIM 1/200 resin planes, which have larger details, though I still have to be careful not to spray heavy coats. The paint does thin out as it dries, so it looks way too thick when it goes on and just fine after it dries, but it can still dry too thick if you're not careful.
  
• You can't do too light a coat, or you end up creating a texture on the sprayed surface. I tried spraying a batch of planes with short bursts, and I had to strip them later because it dried with an orange peel texture.
  

I highly recommend the Midnight Blue Satin as a spray-once coat for late WWII USN gloss dark blue planes.

The lack of instructions for clearing the nozzle surprised me, but inverting the can to spray until clear does indeed seem to be unnecessary. I've gone months or even years between uses of a can, and the nozzles never seem to clog. I've noticed more brands of paint showing up with nozzles like these on the market, so I think some engineer may have finally invented a way to auto-clear the spray path.

Note that the cured paint is not very flexible. It dries reasonably hard, like an enamel. I experimented with the Oregano color on some foam once (it seemed like a nice base color for grass), and when the foam flexed, the paint cracked and crazed. Nobody claimed this was a good idea, and apparently, it wasn't.

- Ix