Vallejo (black) primer problems (picture)

[cdukino]

My local gs (or actually just a gw store) isn\'t doing to well anymore. In fact they hardly had any suplies anymore. Also the black primer was gone. I\'ve been used to gw black primer (and white) and was pretty content with it. But my black can was almost empty... found a can of black Vallejo primer at a convention and bought that.

After my first use... I kinda don\'t like it at all. It\'s completely different from what I\'m used to.

First of all.. after some bursts of priming... the paint seemed to be stuck only at the hightened area\'s. Nothing in the recesses... that was still pure metal. The parts that were covered looked very shiny. I thought it would go away after drying... It didn\'t.

Oke maybe I hadn\'t shaken the can enough... 5 minutes later and after nearly shaking my arm off... Tried again on another mini. Same result... maybe I just needed some more layers. Did thin layers... 5 minutes appart as suggested on the can much morecarefull and according to the rules than I ever had with GW primer (primed a mini with this primer the same day with good results... so the circumstances (heat, moisture and all) are the same)... result:

All it much more shiny. Almost like a latex finish. Some parts seems almost down like this. And some recesses still are bare. And yes I cleaned the fig (grease free) and dried it thoroughly.

I\'m sure with my old gw spray primer I would have gotten a far better result.

Do any of you have experience with this primer? Am I doing something wrong?
Bit disappointed in the primer at the moment.

 

[mickc22]

Hi Cindy,
sorry to hear you are having problems (as I\'m a Vallejo stockist) I use both the black and white primer and have all ways had excellent results.

They do spray differently than GW\'s, more of a mist than a jet, that took me a couple of goes to get used to but once I did coverage was fine and matt

One thing I do tho is stand them(sprays not minis) in a jug of hot water for a couple of minutes to warm the paint, you could give it a try.

hope that helps

(sadly I\'m out of stock at the mo or I\'d gladly send you a new one)


Mick

 

[cdukino]

I noticed the mist like spray and the different nozzel/pushy thing you need to press (does that have an actual name?) I actually thought that was better than the gw one. It doesn\'t get your fingers blackened and it doesn\'t spatter as much as my gw used to do at times (bigger drops occasionally).

Maybe it\'s a getting to know and work with it. The paints are really differnt to... more oily... and that took getting used to as well. Maybe the same thing for the primer. I\'ll just keep on trying.
I think I just wasn\'t prepared for such a differnce. Gotta get used to it.

 

[cdukino]

I really am starting to think I might have gotten a rotten egg. A bad spraycan with bad paint in it.

I\'m backing up my story with a picture now.
I spraypainted 2 figs same room, same temperature, same amount of layers, same drying time, same spraying distance and so on)

One with my gw black paint (the critter on the right with blade)

One with vallejo (the spyglass chick,10th fig primed with the primer and the best I could get so far

I placed them on the same picture, overlapping even to get the same light and all that to get an honest picture (hard enough to take pictures of black as it is)

As you can see the one on the right (GW) is even and mat finish and covered completely.
The one on the left (Vallejo) is uneven covered (still some parts bare like her crotch (her chest is completely covered, just very shiny) and very shiny like sealed with gloss varnish.

I also noticed paint doesn\'t stick well on these very shiny parts, they pool like they are being put on a very oily surface.

I can\'t really inmagine this being normal for this primer. Vallejo has good quality normally.

My Vallejo primer......................................................................................................my GW primer

 

[Ritual]

I\'d toss it... Doesn\'t look good at all! I don\'t think the spray is supposed to look like that.

 

[vincegamer]

Yeah, toss it.

But when you are done, put these 2 together in a diorama. They look like an excelent partnership.

 

[Einion]

I\'ve had very similar problems with lack of coverage in recesses when spraying glossy paint myself and it\'s apparently not in the least uncommon for this to occur - aircraft modellers have specific ways of airbrushing gloss paints to avoid this.

Anyway, if the photo is any guide it\'s far too glossy to work as a good primer and it\'s not at all surprising you\'re having problems with the paint pooling. If you want to try warming the can well in hand-hot water and giving it one more shot (also trying spraying from about 30cm away in short bursts directly at the mini, not in passes) and see if you get any better results, if not I\'d vote for tossing it also.

Einion

 

[cdukino]

I tried warming the can. But I think it might be just a case of paint gone bad or having a faulty chemical mix to begin with (like there is to much oil/binder and not enough pigment)
I don\'t think this primer is even ment to be glossy...

Spraying directly instead of passes gives the same result only faster.
So yeah... this can gets tossed.

 

[Sjakkie]

Just bad luck then, I\'m afraid. You could sent your complaint above, including the picture, to the retailer that sold you this can. You never know, he might sent you a new one (as he should in my opinion).

 

[mickc22]

Definately something wrong there, it should dry dead matt and within a very short time frame.

Thing is you have no way of knowing how long
the guy had it in stock before you bought it.

sorry I can\'t be any more help at the moment

 

[cdukino]

Originally posted by Sjakkie
Just bad luck then, I\'m afraid. You could sent your complaint above, including the picture, to the retailer that sold you this can. You never know, he might sent you a new one (as he should in my opinion).

There is the problem. If it had been a local store I would have gone back to the store. I bought it at a convention though (you were there... it was at Crisis). The guy who sold it will be there probably again next year... but I don\'t think I will remember him by then anymore (can\'t remember him or the company name now), nor reconise, let alone contact him now. So I\'m afraid it\'s just bad luck, money lost and a can tossed away.
Ah well it happens sometimes.
(goes off to strip the test miniatures of this failed experiment)

Thanks for the help guys/girls. I wanted to be sure if this was just bad luck or if Vallejo sprayprimer is just wierd and not for me (and the reason for this thread) .... Seems to be the first.

Though to be honest I will probably due to the experience (may or may not be Vallejo\'s fault at all) not pick up vallejo sprayprimer soon and go back to the gw one to be \"safe\".

 

[Einion]

Originally posted by cdukino
There is the problem. If it had been a local store I would have gone back to the store. I bought it at a convention though...

Try contacting Vellejo themselves, you never know...

Einion