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I have a metal vampire count standard bearer that I have been painting. I have an issue where the paint appears to come off the ridges on the model (down to the undercoat). I am wondering what could be causing this and whether there is anything that I could do about this?

It doesn’t happen anywhere also on the model. I didn’t do the undercoating on it however it didn’t appear to be a glossy coat (i.e., the undercoat looked the same as when I do it myself). Any thoughts?

It's contact with your hands most likely, edges tend to be the spots that get caught. It's a burden of metal miniatures. Tack the model to a pot or something you can hold whilst painting so you aren't handling the mini, I blue tac mine to revell paint pots. Varnish at the end is a must, and a couple of thin coats during painting will help protect what you have done so far.

Yea, attach it to something for easier handling. Holding the mini while painting would definitely remove some of the paints.

And hit it with a varnish when you're done

For metals I suggest first a layer of a glossy varnish topped by a non-glossy one for better protection.

That happens on both plastic and metal models. It mainly occurs when you touch the model too much and not even the best primer can save you from this. You have to be neat and do not touch the model untill the paint is fully cured and then varnish.

I had it happen on a resin model this week. Normally it only happens on metal models for me. It is really, really annoying and a big disadvantage of metal imo.
A good basecoat, varnish and not touching the model do help a lot though.

One thing that hasn't been mentioned yet is washing your models in warm soapy water before undercoating.
Metal and resin models often come with traces of release agent (grease)left on them when they come out of the mould.

what they all said, plus imo:

wear a glove on the hand holding the mini, even if it is mounted to something. It just helps in case you do brush up against it. Definitely wash well before you prime it, and also, let it dry fully. I let mine air dry like a whole day, turning it over and use a qtip where required to make sure the little sections are clear of water as well (usually because water tension can enable the water to just cling to some areas, especially if it's a deep pocket).

It sounds like overkill, but I tend to matte varnish mine between layers or painting sessions. It also helps a lot, especially if you're like me, working on a lot of models, tend to forget about one for a while and then pick it up again later.

Also, I do it, because once bitten... I've said it before so apologies to those who're prolly tired of me mentioning but I have had to paint metal models three times due to issues with paint sticking, so I'm a lot more OCD about them now. Still love them! just... yeah, lot more cautious and so I take about every precaution you can. In the end it does make the paint job a lot stronger! in terms of handling and such. And chipping from getting knocked over. So I figure it's worth it.