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Because of the weather at this time of year I can't get outside to spray(like a lot of us!) so I've had to use brush on primers.

Unfortunately they have decided that they are touch sensitive
and easily rub off.

From model kit experience I have heard of (Gunze sangyo?) Mr Surfacer but have never got my hands on it to try. If anybody has used it, is it any better/worse than the usual primers and more importantly, can it be used with a brush?

I apologize as this isn't directlty answering your question, but have you given Badger's Stynylrez a try? In my experience it's a lot more resilient than most brush-on primers or gesso.

Slipstream wrote:

From model kit experience I have heard of (Gunze sangyo?) Mr Surfacer but have never got my hands on it to try. If anybody has used it, is it any better/worse than the usual primers and more importantly, can it be used with a brush?

It comes in jars of various thicknesses/grains as well as sprays. It can be brushed on. The downside to me is just that it requires more than water for clean up. If you're used to water-based acrylics, this will be highly annoying. You can use it as a primer, but you'll likely want the more finely grained versions (1200, 1500).

I've used it ( brush on 500) to try to correct flaws in minis, but not as a primer.

I brush on green stuff worlds primers, I think they are very good, shrink when they dry and provide a smooth surface. I’d recommend getting a bottle to try

> Badger's Stynylrez

I regularly use their black, brown, and metal. However, their white has too many air bubbles for brush-priming, and their grey ends up glossy, although you'll paint over it anyway. Flesh is a little thin, but still good. Neutral Yellow (khaki) is promising. The other colors I don't use enough to make it worthwhile to purchase.

I paint to advanced tabletop. Not only do color primers give you a head start on painting, they sometimes work fine as paints, and are cheaper per ounce than hobby paints.

I’ve used it before for minis but it’s harder to thin and clean up, plus you can’t thin it with water so I just use it in large batches for scale models. If you’re brush painting any acrylic primer would be better IMHO. Badgers Stynlerez is rebadged as Ultimate Modelling Products Primer in the UK, also I’ve heard that the Mig One Shot primers are also rebadged Stynlerez too but I can’t confirm it. Either way I hope that helps.

I've airbrushed Gunze Mr Surfacer as a primer on miniatures and it works great.

However, I would not use it with a hairy brush as an overall primer, why? Because it dries so fast that it's difficult to manipulate with a hairy brush, it's also a lacquer which means to thin it you need to use a lacquer thinner which is bad to inhale, and also in large quantities it melts plastic.

The fact it melts plastic is part of what makes it a good primer, it sticks really well because it's biting into the surface of the model, but when applying with a hairy brush I think that just makes it more difficult to use.

I do sometimes use it as a fine gap-filler with a hairy brush. Just apply a bit unthinned to a fine gap and it works a bit like liquid greenstuff, it also shrinks like liquid greenstuff so I only use it on hairline gaps, not big gaping gaps.

One positive about being a lacquer, even though the fumes are horrible they're short lived, but yeah, overall I wouldn't use it with a hairy brush to prime an entire model.




Personally, I keep using spray cans in bad weather. I just prep the models inside the house, pre-warm the can in a bucket of hot water, step outside for a few seconds to blast the models, then walk back inside the house and put the models in a spare room to dry.

If I REALLY don't want to go outside, I setup a box fan blowing out a window, put the fan on high, spray the model while pointing the can directly at the fan and as long as it's a decent fan it'll suck the fumes straight outside. It does mean your house will get a touch colder, but you only have the fan on for a few seconds while you're spraying turning it off immediately before and after you finish spraying. As long as you don't have the window open long enough so that it's only the air that cools down and not the furniture, the house will warm back up pretty fast. Just a word of caution, try not to aim the spray can at the motor, proper extractor fans have the motor isolated so there is no danger, but personally I use a regular off the shelf fan with an exposed motor and I've never burned down my house, lol, but I feel I should give a disclaimer anyway, spray cans shoot flammable vapour and crappy motors driving crappy fans can sometimes produce sparks.

Every brush-on primer I've used sucked, so I gave up trying them. Maybe there's some good ones I haven't tried yet, but after several disappointments I gave up and went back to the good old rattle cans, recently I've been liking Vallejo's coloured rattle can primers.

Thanks for all the comments, Guys!

It was the stynlerez grey that failed, just rubbed off the minis at the slightest touch. I did wash the minis beforehand,surprising seeing that I've found this primer to be tough when I've used it previously.

Thanks for your comments on Mr Surfacer, I didn't realise that it was (solvent based?) very different, I had heard that it was good for creating a better surface on minis, acting like a filler for blemishes, I may look into it for that as I'm currently prepping a bunch of metal minis and need to hide some file marks.

Slipstream wrote:
Thanks for your comments on Mr Surfacer, I didn't realise that it was (solvent based?) very different, I had heard that it was good for creating a better surface on minis, acting like a filler for blemishes, I may look into it for that as I'm currently prepping a bunch of metal minis and need to hide some file marks.

The thicker varieties of the Mr Surfacer are good as fillers, but they're very fine fillers so don't expect them to fill all but the finest of scratches. They're designed more for car models, aircraft models, or things like Gundam models where you're trying to get a very good smooth finish. So after you've used your regular putties and there's still a few minor blemishes the Mr Surfacer can help in filling them, and since it quickly dries to a hard finish it can be sanded.