Priming colored plastic?

[rickd13]

What do you guys use to prime over plastic that is molded in a color? I use Duplicolor primer out of a spray can. Will Duplicolor gray primer cover the colored plastic? I was going to prime with gray first (to cover the color) and then prime over the gray primer with white primer before I spray my base color. Will this method work?

[Nick Winter]

It should, depending on the color you may want to use a barrier coat of some kind (clear coat, future or silver paint works), this car was molded in black.

This one was also Black with Orange parts (2 diffrent versions)

and this one had a lot of yellow colored plastic Parts

For Red, Orange or metallics I reccomend the barrier coat

Nick

[MikeMc]

What do you guys use to prime over plastic that is molded in a color? I use Duplicolor primer out of a spray can. Will Duplicolor gray primer cover the colored plastic? I was going to prime with gray first (to cover the color) and then prime over the gray primer with white primer before I spray my base color. Will this method work?

Rick...it might....or not. A lot goes into the answer. 1st what color are you painting over ? 2nd what color do you want in the end. ?

I shoot duplacolor and overall it is a HOT paint. The primers are the same, if you need to cover and seal in one coat or two you will need a barrier,Future will work and so will Bin...A little more info and we can figgure it out!

[rickd13]

I bought a 1970 Plymouth Roadrunner kit by Revell on e-bay. I am assuming that it is molded in orange plastic. If it is, I was going to prime it with gray Duplicolor primer to cover the orange plastic and then I was going to use white Duplicolor primer to cover the gray primer, because I was going to use Hemi-orange Model Masters lacquer as my color coat. If the car is molded in white I do not have any issues, but if it is molded in orange how should I handle it?

[rickd13]

the kit you bought is molded in white plastic. with what you have planned paint and color wise if it had been color molded in orange you would not have needed to prime it at all unless you did some putty work. the beauty of the Testors lacquers is that they are styrene safe and can be applied directly to the plastic without the use of any primers. it's because of this that i actually have been searching out kits molded in color just to take advantage of that and spray them in similar colors to what they are molded in.

since it is molded in white plastic i'd recommend to prime it with Testors lacquer grey primer and paint it with the Hemi orange lacquer from the same line as well as clear it with thier gloss clear lacquer. it's a system made to work together, can't go wrong there

Thank you for your reply. Shouldn't the color coat be sprayed over a white primer though? Spraying the color coat over the gray primer makes the color coat too dark, don't you think? I have used Model Masters lacquer over the Duplicolor primer before, and it worked fine.

[MikeMc]

Thank you for your reply. Shouldn't the color coat be sprayed over a white primer though? Spraying the color coat over the gray primer makes the color coat too dark, don't you think? I have used Model Masters lacquer over the Duplicolor primer before, and it worked fine.

That will depend on the transparency of the orange...It might take an extra coat....spray a white spoon, count your coats...do the same with a grey primered spoon..you will get the same color..might take that extra coat. I shoot a lot of oranges, and you get a bit more pop from SOME with a white base

[rickd13]

this is the Hemi orange lacquer shot over grey primer,

you could use white primer if you want i suppose but you are going to have to do one of two things in that case, either prime the car grey first or paint the inside of the body grey or black.

Why would I have to do that?

[scalenut]

I don't worry about the primer color ,, not sure why anybody should ... if you want a white base .. shoot a light coat of white over the primer . ... you will often use less primer and color coats this way .

plus.... the base paint wet-sands really nice ..

I buy one primer ...grey

Edited September 9, 2011 by scalenut

[mr.camaro]

I recently built the fujimi crx del sol which is moulded red. I primered it with duplicolor sandable primer followed by rustoleum Sun yellow. Two days later red is showing through the topcoat. Grr :-(

[Erik Smith]

I recently built the fujimi crx del sol which is moulded red. I primered it with duplicolor sandable primer followed by rustoleum Sun yellow. Two days later red is showing through the topcoat. Grr :-(

Duplicolor is "hot" and will cause the plastic color to bleed. Even the Duplicolor primer sealer will not block the top coats - especially with duplicolor clear on top. I have heard Bin Primer Sealer works - it is a shellac based paint - but I have not tried it.

[scalenut]

...good point