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I'm working on a small squad of 5 power armor marines, one of which is an unearthed metal dark angels marine, the old metal ones with robes.
I dunno if anyone else remembers this or has had this problem, but the paint has been rubbing off from the metal edge on the bottom of the robes, even the primer is rubbing off.
Anyone have any tips for this? I thought I primed it properly with my airbrush, gave it time to dry, and was only gently handling the mini while painting it but the paint rubbed off down to the metal showing through.

Couple of things, and you may have already accounted for them:

Metal models need a soapy wash with a brush to get off mold release.

Airbrushed primers need more time to cure properly than rattle cans, since they don’t have the same solvents.

Allowing 24 hours for things to dry before handling, putting paint on top might help.

Those being said, I tend now to varnish my metal models, as I’m seeing more and more chipping in storage, as well as handling when finishing paint. I’ll often touch up over the varnish and revarnish as needed.

Ps. Also, using a paint handle or even the model glued to a cork or something, to limit handling might work as well. Lots of examples of diy paint handles (says the one who tries to paint by holding the base/model all the time).

 Cruentus wrote:
Couple of things, and you may have already accounted for them:

Metal models need a soapy wash with a brush to get off mold release.

Airbrushed primers need more time to cure properly than rattle cans, since they don’t have the same solvents.

Allowing 24 hours for things to dry before handling, putting paint on top might help.

Those being said, I tend now to varnish my metal models, as I’m seeing more and more chipping in storage, as well as handling when finishing paint. I’ll often touch up over the varnish and revarnish as needed.

Ps. Also, using a paint handle or even the model glued to a cork or something, to limit handling might work as well. Lots of examples of diy paint handles (says the one who tries to paint by holding the base/model all the time).

I'll try to get some pictures up later for opinion, but do you think I could salvage it by putting some primer back on the metal parts and then trying the varnish thing? Maybe I should have done an extra layer or two of primer. It being such an old miniature that I got second hand, it wasn't in my thoughts that release agent would still be on it but that is still a possibility.

Yeah, get that mini onto some sort of painting handle. You can always use some brush-on primer (I use Vallejo, but there may be better options) to re-cover any areas that have chipped away.

Yeah here's a picture, probably easier to see in real life but its just the edge of the bottom of the robe, the parts that are wavy and its the top of the waves.

Guess I'll break out some brush on primer and see what I can do.