Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Got back into painting recently. Primed all my miniatures until now with corax white spray. The can ran out so, wanting to try something different I got some Mechanicus Standard Grey. I sprayed a batch of minis but they all came out fuzzy. I thought it might be the humidity - it’s now autumn and the others I sprayed in spring and summer and I’ve moved to a new country now - but my weather station said it was 49% and I’ve read that 40-50 is ideal. I’d shaken the can really well. I was round then back of the house in the shadow so I thought maybe trying in sunlight would work better so I moved round the front, shook the can well and tried a couple more. I thought they worked better but now I’ve gone to paint them I see there’s still a slight fuzz. The first lot when I pick them up also give off a lot of grey dust on my hands. What I’d like to know is am I doing something wrong? Is Mechanicus Grey just not a very good undercoating paint? Or could I have just bought a dud can? Does that happen?

Sounds like dry spray to me ~ could the paint be drying midair before it hits the model, then settling all dusty? Or being in an enclosed space and having overspray from the air (or possibly dust from the envoironment) settle back onto it while the paint is drying.
If thats it, maybe spraying from too far away, or in a cleaner more open space.

Other possibility is that the job was not clean when it was sprayed and some contaminant is causing a problem.

also is possible that the can is a bad can or maybe not shaken / mixed well enough.

Spray priming is always twitchy. Need to be the right temperature, humidity, distance, etc. Stray too far, and things go bad.

I’ve been spray priming for a while now, and have had a couple of fuzzy ones. I think not shaking enough was the cause of mine, but who knows. One thing I did learn is that toss them into the simple green (or stripping agent of your choice) before it has time to fully cure. Makes getting the bad coat off a LOT easier.

There's a lot of factors with spraying models whether it be airbrush or can.

Sounds like a distance issue to me.

I'd you spray from too far away the paint begins to dry while it travels to the model. This creates a fuzzy effect where small bits of paint end up sticking to the model. You can correct it by stripping the models using any standard solution you want. Then try doing it again but from a little closer.

If you are too far away it will dry a bit in the air creating the fuzzys. If its too hot outside you can get the same.

Thanks for the answers. I think then that holding the can too far away was the problem. I'll try again but it's a bit nerve racking when it might go wrong again. I don't like having to strip plastic miniatures but luckily I've got some metal ones I can test it on that I can get the paint off easily if it doesn't work.

I would suggest doing some test pieces.

Spray any unimportant object to figure the issue out, and return to your model once happy.

One idea is pieces of sprue if you have a pile of that kicking around? that way its the same material and finish as the mini in question

edit~
For stripping plastic mini's I've always found that IPA + an old toothbrush does a fine job in not too much time.