prime or no prime?

[spykes]

I seen some awsome hasegawa model kits finsihed products. i was wondering do they prime them or not cause when i prime them i seem to lose detail or the hasegawa models. and like there are some detials that i put some tamiya putty on the details dissappear after i sand it down.

what should i do?

[Grayson72]

In general you don't need to prime plastic models, resin I'd say definately to get the paint to stick. One reason to primer plastic models is to set a neutral tone for the top coat, so if you wanted to paint a model that came molded in blue a different color and you didn't want that blue color to bleed through you'd prime it with a more neutral color.

[Less than Super Ostrich]

you know I used to say don't prime the polystyrene kits... but now I am a primer. If you plan to keep the models a long time, model will adhere (and less apt to scratch off) with primer than without.

All else being equal... prime. You could, however, sacrifice some of the depth of your panel lines.

[spykes]

You think the tamiya fine surface primer will work good?

maybe a thin layer???

i dont like the sacrafice the panel details to much

[tetsujin]

If you're losing surface details, you're using too much primer. Be sure to use very light coats. If you're still concerned, use a finer-grain primer like Mr. Surfacer 1200 with an airbrush.

There are advantages to priming: a big one being that it makes it much easier to identify places where seam lines are still visible or the effects of sanding or puttying are too apparent. This is especially true with gray primers: but be careful, if you plan to paint the model white, a gray primer can cause a lot of trouble, as it's hard to seal out colors using white paint. White primer (Mr. Base White, etc.) may be a good choice in that case.

[spykes]

I have never tried airbrush primer before even tho i airbrush alot. i am afraid of primer getting stuck and drying out in the airbrush