Model Railway Forum

I have some plastic figures to paint. Having viewed various you tube videos there seems to be conflicting advice - prime with grey spray primer or paint the figure black first before adding colour. Any advice from members would be much appreciated. The figures are OO and made by Dapol ( couldn’t justify the cost of Modelu which are admittedly very very nice). Maybe next time. Thank you.

I know many folk say use a primer but personally I don't bother - never had a problem yet.

I always painted the Dapol figures straight onto the plastic.

I always spray mine with white primer.

I also used white primer on my figures.

Thanks for the replies. It’s time to get the brushes out.

Hi

Good advice being given above. One thing I always do with any moulded figure is give them a little wash and dry before painting. I use warm water with a squirt of washing up liquid added and an old tooth brush. The idea of washing them is to remove as much as possibly of any residue release agent lubricant used in the moulding process. Then paint as required. I haven't primed plastic figures, but always do when painting metal ones.

I should have added I do prime Modelu type 3d printed figures and metal ones.

Brian wrote: ↑Wed Mar 31, 2021 11:28 am One thing I always do with any moulded figure is give them a little wash and dry before painting. I use warm water with a squirt of washing up liquid added and an old tooth brush.

This has been my approach to painting ModelU and Hardy’s Hobbies figures. Not had too much of a problem- there was just one colour, yellow I think, that would not “take”. More than likely though it was past the BBD. R-

RogerB wrote: ↑Wed Mar 31, 2021 1:35 pm

Brian wrote: ↑Wed Mar 31, 2021 11:28 am One thing I always do with any moulded figure is give them a little wash and dry before painting. I use warm water with a squirt of washing up liquid added and an old tooth brush.

This has been my approach to painting ModelU and Hardy’s Hobbies figures. Not had too much of a problem- there was just one colour, yellow I think, that would not “take”. More than likely though it was past the BBD. R-

Roger, yellow is notorious for not covering anything that is slightly darker. Unprimed 3D prints are light grey and even that is too much for yellow to cope with - hence the recommendation for a white primer to ‘kill’ the base colour.