Question about Revell Germany's plastic

[Astro32]

Greetings!

I'm building R - G's new 1970 Beetle convertible kit, in 1/24th scale, for a family friend. Came out last year. Nice kit and fits well. Really well. But I have a problem: My usual paints, mostly automotive grade since I work with them every day, is behaving strangely on their plastic. I use Design Master primer as the prime / base coat, with either catalysed enamel or lacquer over it. Sometimes I use a similar high-build primer from the automotive world. Either one sticks, normally, to polystyrene really well and prevents the plastic from crazing or wrinkling regardless of the top coat. Here's what is happening: The lacquer I chose for the body is splitting and curling up, lifting the primer with it, so far in sharp inside corners. One of the catalysed paints isn't curing; it's gone gummy and sticky, over the same primers. As a control, I've tried these paints on other brands' plastics and there's no problem at all. Also, my welder of choice, Ambroid Pro Weld, doesn't behave quite the same. It doesn't soften the plastic nearly as much. Has anyone had any issues? I've cleaned the parts very well so mold release agents can't be a contributor, and the primers seem to cure hard. Odd.

[Iain]

Interesting - not had any issues with current/recent Revell Germany plastic - but being across 'the pond' I'm using different materials - Plasticweld cement and Halfords Grey Primer (acrylic - but a 'hot' acrylic).

 

Not had any issues...

 

Anyone else?

 

Iain

[Roy vd M.]

No problem here. Perhaps you should try parts of an other Revell Germany kit. The 1:72 Spitfire or so should be inexpensive enough to test on. 

 

Maybe the moulding machine had a bad day. 

 

Or perhaps you incidentally forgot to clean the parts?

[Astro32]

I just tried some Tamiya acrylics and Model Master enamels on it too. Both are acting differently than on other brands' plastic. I definitely didn't forget cleaning. Perhaps Revell took in a bad batch of plastic, or a batch that had some other type of plastic mixed in accidentally? In today's recycling world that's entirely possible. So far I've managed to fix what went bad so I'll be more careful as I get further into it. The paint that wasn't curing finally did by leaving the parts in my car for the day. So far the only paint in my stash that doesn't react are Metalizers.

In any case, I may email them about my experience. I realize of course that not every customer of theirs would be using automotive paints! But normal hobby paint reacting slightly does concern me.

[LSP_Ron]

I honestly don't think your going to get many answers here since your using Auto Paint and this is a 1/32 and larger aircraft site, so... most of us don't use these products.

[Bill Cross]

I would take it up with Revell USA and see if they can help you. It may be a "lemon" kit as you describe. As Ron said, we don't use automotive paints for the most part here, so real expertise may be hard to come by. And I didn't stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night, either.

[sluggo]

I use automotive paints on aircraft as often as I can. Your experience with them leads me to believe you know what you are doing.

 

I'd say there is some sort of out-gassing going on with the plastic itself.

[Iain]

The primers I'm using are automotive ones - but as said - no probs at all... But admittedly nothing two-packy.

 

Does sound very odd - perhaps sluggo is on to something?

 

I've generally had the experience that most kit plastics seem get harder/more brittle with age (but I'm no plastics expert!!!!) - so perhaps just leaving it awhile to breathe?

 

<I could be talking complete b***** of course - I frequently am> 

 

Iain

[DoogsATX]

When I built RoG's new 109G-6 last year I didn't have any problem with paint, but yeah, the plastic behaved crazy weird with my trusty Tenax 7R. It would soften alright, but seemed to have a lot of trouble welding and then setting up. Usually I have to wait maybe 10 seconds. For a weld with a lot of weird forces yanking on it, maybe 5 minutes. But with that 109 the plastic wouldn't cure and led to some massive headaches with the cowl cheeks in particular. 

 

I switched to straight MEK and that seemed to alleviate the problem.

[KOTR]

The last Revell kit I worked on was the BAe Hawk and had no problems there. Some automotive kits use a little different plastic for the body than the other sprues, but so far I never had an experience like this, too.

[Astro32]

Thanks guys.

The semigloss black I used for the seats & door panels are still tacky. As I noted before, hobby paints are acting differently too. The reaction is almost like trying to paint vinyl with enamel; there's a plasticizer reaction that won't allow the enamel to cure, in that situation. I'm thinking it's a bad/contaminated batch of plastic.

[Astro32]

Update-

The paint I used finally cured a few days ago. Haven't had much time to sit down with this thing though. I guess the moral of my experience is to test various paints on the sprues beforehand, and that's a rather obvious one! However I ran into an exception methinks.

When I work with my usual aircraft kits, I do use automotive paints when hobby paints don't produce the desired results, or I need a given coating in quantity, like a primer or a primary color as a basis for a given job.

Thanks for the input everybody!