Red Plastic Is Made By The Devil

[Junkman]

No matter how many layers of primer I use, that ruddy stuff is bleeding through. Forget about wanting to paint it white or yellow, it'll always turn pink or orange.

How do you lads cope with this? Is there a trick?

[Harry P.]

Primer/sealer.

[Erik Smith]

Orange was crafted by Satan as well. I have an orange '64 T-Bolt with 1 coat of sealer, 3 coats of primer, 3 coats of paint (white roof, green body) - no bleed. One light coat of clear, still good. Wet coat of clear - bam, ORANGE!

I have heard a layer of Future will block out the dreaded colored plastic. Or, use paints that are not so hot - Tamiya and Testor lacquers are not as hot as automotive (e.g. Duplicolor, which I used).

I coped - painted white roof black.

I am so glad Revell has left that sad episode (molding in colors) back in the 90s and now molds in white.

[Junkman]

Primer/sealer.

OK, but which sealer? Or better: What exactly is sealer? I can't find any product labelled as such.

[Junkman]

Orange was crafted by Satan as well. I have an orange '64 T-Bolt with 1 coat of sealer, 3 coats of primer, 3 coats of paint (white roof, green body) - no bleed. One light coat of clear, still good. Wet coat of clear - bam, ORANGE!

I have heard a layer of Future will block out the dreaded colored plastic. Or, use paints that are not so hot - Tamiya and Testor lacquers are not as hot as automotive (e.g. Duplicolor, which I used).

I coped - painted white roof black.

I am so glad Revell has left that sad episode (molding in colors) back in the 90s and now molds in white.

Will Future sustain being coated with enamel, or would the cellulose thinner destroy it?

[Dr. Cranky]

House of Kolor as an excellent sealer but you have to thin it down enough to apply it.

[Junkman]

HoK doesn't ship to Europe

[Dr. Cranky]

Sorry, there's got to be an equivalent used in the UK!

[stillnotpc]

I have had good luck with a base coat of silver; either the Testors one coat or Tamiya.

[Junkman]

I have had good luck with a base coat of silver; either the Testors one coat or Tamiya.

You know what? Since silver is also made by the devil, I will give this a try.

[PlasticKits]

Junkman I yse Krylon black/flat black first then priner then paint! It works I have a PT Cruser I painted white 6 years ago and it's still white!!!! PK

[Aaronw]

BIN White shellac is supposed to stop anything. It is used to seal walls from smoke and water stains etc.

I've used it on wood to knock down the grain and painted over it with acrylics and it worked great. I'm not sure how shellac reacts to enamels, laquers etc, but I think I've seen others mention using it on models.

http://rust-oleum.co...uct.asp?pid=216

[Sam Cates]

Look toward the FUTURE FUTURE FUTURE FUTURE! (ambient echoes) I had that problem with a Revell Jag in red plastic, only thing that cured it was a thorough coat of Future Shine floor wax, even the Pledge with Future works well.

Edited October 15, 2011 by Sam Cates

[Tonioseven]

Primer/sealer.

Exactly. Future works as well.

Edited October 15, 2011 by Tonioseven

[charlie8575]

Lay down a coat of gray primer.

Follow with a VERY thin coat of silver paint. Just enough to leave no primer visible.

Sand with 600-grit sandpaper, then 1000-grit to make it smooth.

One more thin coat of primer. Just enough to cover all traces of silver paint.

Re-sand with 600-grit.

Paint.

Charlie Larkin

[Chuck Most]

Krylon primer and BIN are very good blockers as well. Floquil also makes (or made at one time...?) a product called 'Barrier'. It went on clear, and looked like it wouldn't block anything, but it worked very well!

Oh- Yellow plastic is made by His Unholiness as well.

Edited October 15, 2011 by Chuck Most

[Darin Bastedo]

[GeeBee]

Primer, followed by a thin coat of flat black, flat it down but don't remove the black, you might want to put a thin coat of primer on after the black, and then put on the top coat, you'll have no bleed through after that.

[Art Anderson]

With styrene plastic, there are two ways to color it, pigment, and dyes. Due to the changes in the materials allowed to be used, in both paints and plastics, dyes have, more and more, replaced pigments (which are solids, unfortunately many of them being deemed as hazardous to poisonous).

Anything that will "seal" the plastic surface will prevent bleeding of colors into paint coatings on plastics. The suggestions offered here are all good ones.

Art

[charlie8575]

I haven't seen Barrier in years, Chuck.

I think when Flo-Quil changed their paint formula in the mid-1990s to respond to the growing number of plastic model railroad products, Barrier was discontinued.

Charlie Larkin

[Foxer]

I just started a Little Red Wagon shop truck (in red plastic) and this is all welcome. Thanks everyone for your experiences.

[Bob Turner]

Along with Future, (or whatever name it goes by in the UK, I believe it's called "Johnsons Kleer" there), I've had good results with Design Masters Super Surface Sealer, found here:

http://www.dmcolor.com/products/?id=26

Checking their store locator for the UK only shows that it's available there from a wholesaler, & not retail, but here's the link to that page:

http://www.dmcolor.c...m&Submit=Submit

It seems Smither-Oasis UK Ltd is the wholesaler there for the company. Here's their link:

http://sona.oasisfloral.com/Home

You might try contacting them to see if you can get it there. I'ved used it for quite a few years with good results, it's an excellent sealer.

Good luck.

[Skydime]

I like my own variation of the coat of silver. I am doing an orange AMT 70 1/2 Camaro for my wife right now. The plastic comes in orange. I didn't even shoot primer on it. I just hit it with a good coat of silver and then laid down some One Coat pink on it. There is no bleed through at all.

[Junkman]

Along with Future, (or whatever name it goes by in the UK, I believe it's called "Johnsons Kleer" there), I've had good results with Design Masters Super Surface Sealer, found here:

http://www.dmcolor.com/products/?id=26

Checking their store locator for the UK only shows that it's available there from a wholesaler, & not retail, but here's the link to that page:

http://www.dmcolor.c...m&Submit=Submit

It seems Smither-Oasis UK Ltd is the wholesaler there for the company. Here's their link:

http://sona.oasisfloral.com/Home

You might try contacting them to see if you can get it there. I'ved used it for quite a few years with good results, it's an excellent sealer.

Good luck.

Yes, Future is called Kleer in the UK, it's exactly the same stuff and I use it a lot.

Many thanks for the research you did witht he Design master stuff, I might give it a try.

And many, many thanks to all for your wonderful tips. I knew other people must have run into this problem before me.

For those who are interested why I raised the question at this time, the case in point is actually that 1:18 scale Maisto Dodge I'm reworking. It has a red interior. In the olden days I had a simple solution for model kits molded in red - paint them red. This is the first time I actually want to change the colour of red plastic.

[Craig Irwin]

Floquil Barrier, look for it in the model rail road area. Airbrush or spray cans.