so... i am working on an Acme 1/18 sprint car. went to primer the wings, which are plastic versus primed metal, and had a real problem. started with Tamiya white fine primer, the paint dried and the finish was "dimpled", i can't think of another way to describe it. started with a nose wing and went ahead and painted it gloss white (Tamiya) hoping it may fill in the dimples. no such luck. so i got another set of wings out and tried Tamiya grey primer (not fine). that turned out ok, so i went ahead and hit them with white primer. same result.
here is what i started with-
(https://i.imgur.com/VcFSymq.jpeg)
(https://i.imgur.com/h0Fqs8f.jpeg)
here is how it ended up with white primer over grey
(https://i.imgur.com/0I0KAbQ.jpeg)
(https://i.imgur.com/Lrpsn90.jpeg)
and here is the original nose wing that only has white primer and paint on it
(https://i.imgur.com/jtfUrNy.jpeg)
i have 2 top wings and one nose wing to still work with. wondering if i should wipe them down with alcohol or something like that to clean it up. the wings are just plastic.
please help...
I looks like they were molded in a colored plastic, so I bet they have some mold release on them. If you wash them before doing anything to them in something like Dawn dish detergent, I believe that should take care of your fisheye problems.
Quote from: jh63fan on July 10, 2025, 03:13:43 PMI looks like they were molded in a colored plastic, so I bet they have some mold release on them. If you wash them before doing anything to them in something like Dawn dish detergent, I believe that should take care of your fisheye problems.
I normally use alcohol to clean up my resin pieces, would that work too?
Was also thinking about trying enamel primer.
I would think alcohol would work, never used it on plastic myself. As far as switching primer, I use the white and grey Tamiya primers you mentioned and haven't had any issues so far. The only time I used enamel primer it took weeks to dry enough to top coat.
....Surface is contaminated with something ....even using the best of the best primers wont hide that...I use Dawn dish washing soap and allow the piece to air dry....I have had no issues with doing it that way, ever.
i wiped down my last "extra" top wing with 90% alcohol and used the white enamel primer, so far so good. will report back if there are any problems.
i reached out to Acme about it and they responded within 24 hours. some account representative who i am sure randomly got the email said that the "design guy" won't be back at work until Monday and she would forward this on to him. let's see if i get a response.
Alcohol rubdown seems to have worked for the top wing, just primed one side of the front wing. Using enamel primer.
Just may end up being lazy and slapping a coat of Tamiya semi-gloss over the primer. The wings don't appear to be gloss white. Most sprint cars these days are wraps that don't have a gloss finish to them anyhow.