Anyone use Tamiya liquid surface primer?

[TC8271]

I bought a bottle of it at the local Hobbytown and I umm can't read Japanese. So am I supposed to brush this on or do I spray it through my airbrush? If its through the airbrush how do I thin this stuff?? Thanks in advance..

Tom

[rumbling1]

Tom,

Ive got a bottle but I dont find myself using it very often. It has a very thin consistency...similar to Mr. Surfacer 1200. Im pretty sure its laquer based so if I was spraying it Id probably cut it between 30% and 40% with laquer thinner. Dont forget the respirator/spray booth...as you have already probably found out its pretty nasty stuff. You can brush it but its so thin I doubt it would do much more than help with final prep work before painting. Just my 2 cents....hope it helps.

Michael

[TC8271]

Thanks Michael. Yeah the stuff smells pretty nasty. I'll give it a shot though to see how it does. Normally I use a sandable primer for cars and it works really well not to mention its only $2 dollars for a 16oz spray can..

Tom

[AnthonyWan]

you can use it on sanding scratches or small, almost faint ejector pin marks or scratches.

[canadian_camo]

ditto with what rumbling and anthony have said

[RichyJ]

I brought some of this the other week, kind of dissapointed using it, MR Surfacer seems far better.

It has been good at covering small scratches but thats all.

Plus the stench from it is something else :lol:

[Oryx]

I use it all the time.

My main use is to brush it on thick to fill smaller seams and gaps. A lot of places where I used to use white-out/Tip-Ex/CA to fill scratches I now use this.

If spraying it, you need to be careful. It needs a lot of thinning (I will thin it about 2:1 thinners to filler). I had big problems trying to spray it when thinning with normal automotive lacquer thinner - the stuff would dry in the air and form a powdery texture. Luckily you could rub it off easily with some alcohol since it never adhered that well to the surface. I then discovered Tamiya lacquer thinner - expensive stuff but it seems to dry slower and the powdering problem disappeared. When thinning the Tamiya liquid surface primer with the Tamiya lacquer thinner, I now get a satin/glossy finish that makes quite a nice base for further painting. I heard you can also use the Gunze levelling thinners, but haven't tried it myself.

As I said, my main use is still brush painted on small scratches, gaps, seams, etc.

Hope that helps...

Edited July 24, 2008 by Oryx

[bashace]

I use this all the time, thin it about 2 parts Tamiya lacquer thinner to 1 part primer for spraying with airbrush. I wait until the solvent smell on the model goes away before sanding or painting anything on it. I haven't had any problems with it sanding to a very smooth surface for final topcoating. If you don't thin it enough, it will spider web on you. You can clean up any spraying imperfections (like the spider webbing)by lightly spraying lacquer thinner over the flawed area and it should smooth out. Final sand with 800 to 1000 grit sandpaper and it will be very smooth.

V/r

Ron