On Apr 13, 2020, at 6:01 AM, main@RealSTMFC.groups.io wrote:

6a. Re: Tamiya primer (was [RealSTMFC] Painting brass)
From: Denny Anspach <danspachmd@...>
Date: Mon, 13 Apr 2020 01:26:29 EDT

I have gone back to always using a light colored primer (gray or white) on brass simply because I have found -convincingly so- that the utterly flat finish offers an opportunity to see clearly, iron out, sand out, and eliminate blemishes that are so often impossible to perceive until you see them on the terminal finish coat. I do the same on resin, styrene and wood. Like others reporting this change back has been eased by Tamiya after studying the raving reports of its use coming from the military and car modelers. If it interferes with detail, it is detail that -thankfully- I do not perceive.

Bill Welch, this is all your fault. You're the one that made me start considering paints besides Scalecoat... *shakes fist*

I have to say that my experience well mirrors Dr Denny's, this after not being a primer user for years. I just didn't use it. But when I started working on F units a couple of years ago with plugging horn holes and working on smoothing the parting lines found on the nose and sides of the nose, I decided to try a primer. I'd heard a LOT of good things about the Gunze product Mr Hobby "Mr Surfacer 1500". Sprayed with their "Mr Color" thinner, it is wonderful stuff. Goes down dead smooth, cleanly and easily. And it will show the results of filling holes and such. If I didn't get the hole filled perfectly, it will show. The Mr Hobby "Mr White Putty" is so superior to any of the regular hobby putties it's not even funny. Super fine grain, easy to sand, and reportedly not prone to shrinkage. I then have been painted with, yes, some of the Mr Hobby paints and their thinner "Mr Self Leveling Thinner"...and the paint is also wonderful to spray. The thinner works wonder, makes it all very forgiving. I've also been told that the Mr Self Leveling Thinner works well with the Tru Color paint; I've not tried it myself.

There's actually not a "Mr ____" product that I've tried that I didn't like. Their Mr Dissolved Putty is a styrene filler, not a putty - think of the old trick of dissolving sprue in Testors liquid cement and using it as filler...same thing. The coarser "Mr Surfacer" product (500 and 1000) are also light filler/sandable primers.

I've also had great results with Tamiya paints, MIG paints, and the Vallejo line tho' the latter primarily as weathering. There some great products used by other modelers in other realms. Hasegawa offers some chisel tools - if you heard my clinic at Cocoa Beach you heard me just rave about those...

Craig Zeni
Cary NC