Priming metal figs.... How much is not enough?

[buglips*the*goblin]

If you work dark to light like I do, a thin coat of brush-on primer followed by a coat of brown liner is so far working wonders for me.

[TGP]

If you want paint or primer to dry more quickly, half an hour at 200F (94C) in the oven will solve most of that.

 

(I'd recommend not trying this with Bones, BTW. )

 

...ovens...food...

 

[...]

(Cough). Okay, between formaldehyde and ammonia as acrylic preservatives which can volatilize at high temperatures, the hazards of nonfood items in your kitchen oven, and the unfortunate fact that acrylic softens drastically at about 60 degrees C, I cannot recommend this.

 

A good warm over with a hair dryer can help, but the best, most time-tested method for acrylic drying and a good permanent adhesion is patience and adequate drying time. [...]

 

But if someone was in a hurry...

 

At ReaperCon the sculptors had improvised warming devices (IWDs ?) consisting mostly of coffee cans and incandescent light bulbs.

 

I wonder if that sort of arrangement would help cure paint on a mini faster?

Is it higher temperatures that dries acrylic paint or is it increased airflow?

Maybe an electric micro desk fan would be the equipment to subject a wet mini to (rather than an oven)?

(In another thread Derek Schubert opined that surface area versus volume was what dried out paint on a palette, i.e: airflow.)

[Pingo]

Acrylic paint does dry faster in warmer temperatures. Below about 8 degrees celsius it won't dry at all, something I found out to my annoyance when I had to paint a large statue in an unheated garage one very cold and wet April.

 

But as the conservators at the Smithsonian point out, at 60 degrees Celsius acrylic paint softens. (This is important because certain methods of painting restoration can involve heat.)

 

A locally warm environment can be conducive to the drying of acrylic paint. Baking it, not so good.

[klarg1]

Also make sure to give your mini plenty of time to dry all the way when priming, especially if you plan to use it for gaming. Letting the primer harden gives the paint a good undercoat, and once you're done painting it, let the paint dry for 24hrs, then put on your varnish, which you also let dry fully. The paint job ends up being much tougher that way.

 

This is good advice. I always try to wait and make sure primer is good and solid, but sometimes patience is hard.

[ShadowRaven]

I have a halogen desk lamp. I set my minis under that to dry. Problem solved

[DocPiske]

Someone will probably strongly disagree with this, but you really don't need good coverage with primer. The primer has good adhesion to metal, which most brush on paints don't have. The brush on paints do adhere well to the primer, though. So you really only need primer on those parts of the model which you will touch while handling or be touched by your choice of storage. The other areas you can just paint over with your base coat and they will be fine.

 

As for curing the primer the minimum recommended time for most spray primers is four hours, however I agree that a day or more is better.

[The Dread Polack]

When I prime, whether it's spray-on or brush-on, I will turn the model around and look for the light to reflect off of the metal. Once I don't see any reflection, I assume I have enough primer on it. A closer look will also tell you since you can actually see the paint on the metal, but I find the first method helpful.

 

This obviously doesn't work for bones. When I "prime" bones, I use gesso mixed with black paint and spray/brush until it's gray instead of white.

 

As for drying: wow, I pretty much never wait a day or even 4 hours for my primer to dry. I assumed that given the very thin layer, it much more quickly than that. So far, I've rarely had any problems, although I have one mini on my shelf where the paint has begun peeling off. I wonder if that's the problem...

[OneBoot]

I mix white and black RMS brush on primers together because I like to prime grey. Color really doesn't matter much. Just use what you like, and happy painting.

 

There's...there's a black brush-on primer?!

 

 

*adds bottle to cart*

 

How did I not see that before? That would really be coming in handy right now. Maybe I should see if the FLGS has any.

 

Huzzah!

--OneBoot :D