I am in the painting phase of my leopard C2 build, and I primed the hull over the weekend with mr surfacer 1500. I am not super happy with the result. Think I had the mix too thick and pressure a tad high as the mix is grainy in a few spots.
Curious what the best way is for stripping the mr surfacer or at least smoothing it out so I can reprime. I know IPA removes Mr surfacer with so elbow grease but I was wondering if there is something better, that won’t harm the styrene
Why not just give it a quick sand with some 800 grit and see if that knocks the finish down?
I considered this option but it’s a bit grainy around some very fine detail, I worry sanding would annihilate. I could spot treat with ipa in those areas and sand in others
Put some Mr. Surfacer on a test piece. Try Easy Off oven cleaner to see how it does.
Another candidate is Mr Paint Remover.
Gotta love the creativity that goes into naming these products.
If you used or have mr levelling thinner you could try spraying that neat over the affected areas. May be too long after initial coat, but if you will be stripping it anyway may be worth a try. I’ve done this when laying down a gloss coat, but always been before it cures.
Good luck, oh and I usually mix mr surfacer 1500 50:50 with levelling thinner and spray at 15psi through 0.5mm needle.
Try Mr.Hobby Thinner if you have any. You could also Google search for a product called ‘Biostrip 20’ which might do the trick- it is non-toxic and rinses under the tap- I have not used it on any Mr.Hobby products but I’ve yet to meet a paint it will not shift- it can need two or three applications but it has got the job done for me a good few times.
Before you get into working with a stripper, I would try sanding with a very fine sanding pad (like 6000) - it might smooth it without knocking off any of the fine detail. You might just mist it with a few coats of MLT through your airbrush - that will smooth out a little bit of roughness but I’m not sure it will smooth out the amount of roughness you have.
I probably should have been clearer with my initial suggestion. What I mean is to spray the neat levelling thinner in the hope that it would react with the primer and level out the imperfections before curing again.
Thanks. I don’t have MLT but I’m gonna order some! I worker if tamiya lacquers thinner would work in the interim. If not it might be a IPA soak followed by quips and paper towel and repeat until it’s smooth/clean
The Tamiya lacquer thinner retarder type, orange top, is very similar to levelling thinner, however I have both and always go for the mr levelling thinner, magic stuff.
I’ve heard excellent things about it. Last time I was at my LHA they were out so I got tamiya yellow cap. Pretty happy with it but I’ve heard MLT is even better
Okay 91% ipa is eating right through the thin coat of primer. I dropped a drop of 91% ipa on the bottom of the hull and I could removed the primer super easily with a cotton bud, even disturbing it with my airbrush moved the primer around. I think a bath of IPA followed by a rinse in tap water and repeating will get me back to square one. Is it safe to give the styrene a day 2-3 minute bath in ipa?
You probably won’t even need that long. I’d leave it for 30 seconds to a minute, rinse and then repeat. But the IPA shouldn’t do anything untoward to the plastic
Perfect! The IPA seems to cut right through the MR surfacer. The moment it makes contact the surfacer lifts off and if I give a minute and drop a drop of water, the mr surfacer runs right off.
I cut a piece of test sprue. Gonna let it soak in IPA for a few hours. (Much longer than I’ll soak the kit). If the sprue is fine I don’t think the kit will suffer
Alright got it down to here tonight after about an hour of soak, wipe with q-tip, rinse, repeat.
Still have some work to do on the rear. But wanted opinions on if the residual in nooks and crannies will be an issue for reprime. My guess is no, but want opinions before I reprime as I don’t want to have to remove it again
Yeah the bits in and around the nooks and crannies can be a PITA but I find a stiff bristled brush to be useful in getting the paint shifted from parts like that. Also a cocktail stick can be good too.
Stiff brush worked well. A little residual left but I don’t think it’ll come off. I am fairly certain the transition between plastic and primer is smooth now
That’s a grand job you’ve done to get it to that stage.
