Can Tamiya paint be applied directly to plastic without primer?

[Dennis Lacy]

Title pretty much says it all. I've never used Tamiya before and just bought a can of TS-27 "Matt White" to paint the interior components of my project and didn't realize it was lacquer until after getting home.

I searched previous posts and none that I found adressed this.

[Peter Lombardo]

Sure, I’ve done it many times, although, I don’t really recommend it. For exterior body painting I always use a sandable primer. I use, among others, Rust-oleum Automotive primer. It is light grey, goes on fast and dries even faster. You can begin light sanding in 20 minutes if you are in that big of a hurry.

You can put down and top coat any paint over this primer with no fear of it grazing the plastic…even “Hot†automotive Lacquers. But to your question, Tamiya paints do not require a primer, but if you have a hardware store in the area, they have the primer on hand; it is about $5.00 for a huge can that will last many projects, so why would you not use it?

[Dennis Lacy]

the Tamiya paints are safe on top of bare plastic as are the newer Testors lacquers. i see why you ask as far as interior colors go, specifically white. i have used the Tamiya pearl white a few times for 50's style cars on interior parts. i also spray alot of the silver leaf color onto bare plastic and never have any problems. recently i have been taking advantage of the different kits molded in colors and using the Tamiya and Testors lacquers over the colored plastic with great results.

Dave

Thank you guys! The can says "for plastics" but I just wanted to be sure because I remember what happened years ago when I tried using Krylon directly over plastic. Dave, the plan is to put the Matt White onto the interior parts from Revell's '32 Roadster which are already molded in white and have been modified to work in the AMT '32 Roadster since it's interior "tub" is pretty primitive. I am going for a vinyl / leather look and Tamiya is the only brand the store had on-hand that had a Matt version of white, which should be not too shiney but not too dull. I saw the White Pearl but thought it would be better suited to the 60's and 70's plastic era of upholstry.

[Dennis Lacy]

I sprayed the interior panels and seat with the Tamiya tonight and it turned out just fine. Paint went on perfect and dried to the look I was trying to achieve. It's amazing how much better this paint is than Testors enamels! After I spray this project and the next with the enamel I already bought I'm switching to lacquer.

[conor1148]

i know almost nothing about tamiya paint but why not use primer? it seems to me the painting process goes alot smoother and looks much better if you use primer, and i just use rust-o-leum primer for plastics