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So something weird happened to a batch of models last weekend and in 30 years of making model kits I've not seen the like before. That being the case I'm going to go in depth so bear with me.

I've built 20 Battlefront FV432 APC's for the Team Yankee game over the last month in readiness for my first game on Tomorrow. These were the last minis for the whole army that is otherwise painted so I was in a 'light at the end of the tunnel' frame of mind.

Sunday AM I sprayed the lot with Black Plasticote primer in the garden, used this brand lots before so nothing unusual here. Weather was pleasant for the time of year, circa 10-12degC and cloudy but clearing, zero rain. I brought the lot in the house after 30 mins or so as I was going out. All fine to this point.

Sunday PM I sprayed the lot again in PSC Russian Uniform (I like this range, great paint) but this ran out almost immediately and switched over to Army Painter Firefly Green (not so keen on this range but it's all the shop had) - not a match but close enough. Again same weather conditions, maybe a tad warmer say 15degC. As far as I am aware both paints are made by Kvsair so there shouldn't be a compatibility issue with any over spraying.

Once I had made a full pass with the AP Spray I went back and checked the models for any missed bits. The Ap spray seemed thick in places I noticed that it looked like it had crazed/cracked in other places, sort of like those GW basing paints that everyone uses these days.

I've had similar problems before with Undercoats/primers not bonding and the paint flaking off so put it down to experience and figured I would strip the lot and play my game with the APCs sans colour, not something I would usually do but Dunkirk spirit and all that. First 5 models went in the Dettol at that point and I called it a day.

Monday evening after work I remove the first batch from the Dettol and start scrubbing, eventually resorting to IPA to get all the paint off. Now this is where it gets weird, the APCs now have the crazed/cracked pattern in relief in the plastic itself?

My current thinking is that the Plasticote and Army Painter sprays have reacted and damaged the model as the internal faces of the plastic are unaffected.

Now I don't think that I can recover the situation so I either repaint the models and ignore the pattern or chuck £120 worth of models in the bin and buy them again.

Has anyone else had this before or some insight as to what could have happened? I'd love to know so that I can avoid this in future.

I think something else may happened. Dettol tends to make crap out of the paint if you rinse it with water. Sorry to be the "captain obvious guy". I highly suggest soaking into Isopropanol and re-prime the models.

I avoid spray primers at any cost.

It's not a paint issue in itself; the plastic itself has raised/been damaged. So whatever further painting I do will have to go over the damaged surface.

I don't know what the damage is, but if it is not that bad you may try applying one of the lower grades of Mr. Hobby Surfacer, this thing is actually a mircofiller that can be used for such occasions. I am sorry to hear that this happened your models :( This sounds like some bad reaction between the paints, but I don't know what :(

Iv had issue with AP

daemonic yellow on 10 space marines and it just straight melted cracked and hazed the crap out of it, nothing would get it off.

i think AP has some QA issues with some of their paints as iv used their brown and white with almost no issues but yellow i will never touch.

For what caused it - This is just a spray paint thing. It's not hugely common, but it happens, particularly with soft plastics.

There are solvents in spray paints (not sure why, probably to stop the stuff from drying up in the can).

My understanding is that if the mix is a little off, if you don't shake it enough before use, and/or if you spray too close to the model, the solvents can hit the model before the paint does, which wreaks havoc with the model.

I'd recommend sending some pics of the models to Army Painter, and see what they say.

Also you might be able to sand down the raised bits to at least get therm looking more presentable.