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So I primed and base coated a unit of Lychgaurd last weekend, I thought the temperature and humidity would be fine, but I think it was a bit hotter than I realized and my models came out a bit grainy. Its not a total disaster or anything, grainy models just bug me. Is there anything I can do to fix this or smooth them out some?

when i had this with gw white primer i dumped them in a paint stripper, scrubbed them and re sprayed with black.

Being necrons, i think it would give them a nice aged look?

What kind of primer did you use? If it was GW, that was likely your problem. Try Krylon or Tamiya.

Small bit of Info, Kyrlon makes GW spray paint.

It was Rust-oleum automobile primer. Someone told me auto body primer works pretty well and I've been using it for a while with very good results, so thats why I think it may have just been a bit too hot that day or I need to get new primer. It was my fault, before I started praying the models I noticed that the stream didn't seem to be as good as it normally is.

Hm... usually grainy surfaces happen when it is too hot. The paint partially dries before it hits the model. Page 16 of the new "How to Paint" book is about troubleshooting primer issues... and I think it works regardless of the brand. The suggested solution is to wait until stuff cools off in the evening to prime.

As for GW primer, considering that Mig Jiminez, considered to be one of the world's best Military Modellers recommends the GW Chaos Black primer as one of the best on the market is saying something. As pricey as it is, it is still cheaper than the Tamiya fine primer... but I digress.

Arrathon wrote:Small bit of Info, Kyrlon makes GW spray paint.

*Mind officially blown*

From my experience, humidity plays a HUGE part when spraying or priming. I see you are in CA, so I'm guessing it was relatively and humid. Watch out for that. I nearly ruined an Armorcast Shadowsword nearly a decade ago because of that. Thankfully the old Armorcast Shadowsword didn't have all that much detail on it, so I just sprayed multiple coats when it was more dry out, and that seemed to do the trick.

Agatheron wrote:Hm... usually grainy surfaces happen when it is too hot. The paint partially dries before it hits the model. Page 16 of the new "How to Paint" book is about troubleshooting primer issues... and I think it works regardless of the brand. The suggested solution is to wait until stuff cools off in the evening to prime.

As for GW primer, considering that Mig Jiminez, considered to be one of the world's best Military Modellers recommends the GW Chaos Black primer as one of the best on the market is saying something. As pricey as it is, it is still cheaper than the Tamiya fine primer... but I digress.

Sounds like paint drying before it hits the model to me too.

I agree with the GW spray comments, the haters just dont know when to quit.

Yeah I'm in CA, and its been rainy this weekend. It was also a bit hotter for the 2 hours that I decided to paint, so I'm thinking it was a either or a combo of both.

Living in Ca my whole life weather very rarely factors into things you do during the day, so I didn't think to check the humidity.

Whats really hard is that every brand of paint and sometimes each individual can of paint is different, so I'm not always certain if its a good day to paint or not. I guess the only safe way to play is to always spray on a test model first, and see if the results are coming out well?

Theres always brush on primer if you keep having issues, vallejo make a good one

Since no one has actually proposed a solution, other than paint stripping;

This has happened to me before, sometimes I have had success by taking a stiff, old paint brush, and then just brushing them off a bit. Sometimes if the primer has that "dusty" feel to it, the loose stuff will come off...worth a try at least.

Ashton

I use Duplicolor Sandable Primer. Its supposedly "immune" to weather effects. I live in Florida and our humidity is second to none.

Redfinger wrote:Since no one has actually proposed a solution, other than paint stripping;

This has happened to me before, sometimes I have had success by taking a stiff, old paint brush, and then just brushing them off a bit. Sometimes if the primer has that "dusty" feel to it, the loose stuff will come off...worth a try at least.

Ashton

Thanks, I'll give this a try

spacewolf407 wrote:I use Duplicolor Sandable Primer. Its supposedly "immune" to weather effects. I live in Florida and our humidity is second to none.

I second this^, I've ruined a few ork boyz because of the Florida humidity.

Lord_Astaroth wrote:From my experience, humidity plays a HUGE part when spraying or priming. I see you are in CA, so I'm guessing it was relatively and humid. Watch out for that. I nearly ruined an Armorcast Shadowsword nearly a decade ago because of that. Thankfully the old Armorcast Shadowsword didn't have all that much detail on it, so I just sprayed multiple coats when it was more dry out, and that seemed to do the trick.

This.

If you are priming mini's in a box, this too can cause this to happen. The paint goes to the back of the box, and swirls back. It then dries in mid air and clings to the wet surface of the model. Giving you the grainy model syndrome. Try priming on a large flat piece of cardboard, and not a box. you will see a big difference.

Krylon/gw white has given me tons of problems with this. If I try to do a light primer it comes out grainy. You almost have to spray a bit more on it. For some reason krylon black doesn't do this for me and has way better coverage. But the white is not great.

I have to be honest, whilst humidity and temperature do have a significant effect, I once used a spray can of Army painter Brown and it came out grainy. The same hour I used my Army Painter Black on another miniature and it was fine. Same company, same day, same atmospherics, I think the difference is in the can or in my shaking them up.

merlin96 wrote:If you are priming mini's in a box, this too can cause this to happen. The paint goes to the back of the box, and swirls back. It then dries in mid air and clings to the wet surface of the model. Giving you the grainy model syndrome. Try priming on a large flat piece of cardboard, and not a box. you will see a big difference.

OH WOW, didn't think of that, Usually I setup a a flat peice of carbord with bottom back and sides, no top. This time all I had was an old box so I sprayed them in the box. Very interesting

You are washing the minis before hand yes ?

merlin96 wrote:If you are priming mini's in a box, this too can cause this to happen. The paint goes to the back of the box, and swirls back. It then dries in mid air and clings to the wet surface of the model. Giving you the grainy model syndrome. Try priming on a large flat piece of cardboard, and not a box. you will see a big difference.

Id never considered that. Ive never actually done minis in a box but I've had dried paint dust all of my shoes from spraying bigger things with particles swirling about.

Tauzor wrote:You are washing the minis before hand yes ?

Yes I'm washing them, or at least I know I should be washing them beforehand, can't remember specifically now if I did. I'm thinking it was the humidity or the box that was the culprit. It rained just a day or two after I sprayed and that box kicked back a lot of paint dust.

OK, here's what I ended up doing with some reasonable results. I took some q-tips, dipped then acetone (my wife's nail polish remover) and very gently "massaged" the fuzzy areas. It worked pretty well for the most part, took off a bit of paint a few areas, but it was pretty easy to go back and touch up the damaged spots, especially since everything is just black right now. Its a bit risky, but it seems to have cut down on the fuzz without having to go full strip and re-paint.

Thanks for the tips, there's been some really good stuff in here and I think I can aviod this situation in the future, which is honeslty the best solution.

Thanks again!

I use 96 cent spray paint thats for sale at Walmart. The only issue I ever have is that an entire bottle might spray too thin. But for 96 cents I could care less. It comes out black and looks great. I refuse to spend $8 or more on a can of spray paint.