Primer Question

[malvern_man]

Hi all,
I apologise if this question has been asked before but I have a query about primers.

When I prime my Warhammer vehicles/figures I use Citadel chaos black in a rattle can, I now have a 1/35 scale Tamiya British Churchill VII tank waiting to be built.

My question is, can I prime the Churchill tank with my can of Citadel chaos black and then top coat it with Tamiya TS-2 dark green or will the 2 paints react because chaos black is acrylic and TS-2 is a synthetic lacquer.

Also, once the top coat is fully cured can I use my Vallejo acrylics for detailing and weathering etc.

Regards, Chris.

[Tim Marlow]

Hi all,
I apologise if this question has been asked before but I have a query about primers.

When I prime my Warhammer vehicles/figures I use Citadel chaos black in a rattle can, I now have a 1/35 scale Tamiya British Churchill VII tank waiting to be built.

My question is, can I prime the Churchill tank with my can of Citadel chaos black and then top coat it with Tamiya TS-2 dark green or will the 2 paints react because chaos black is acrylic and TS-2 is a synthetic lacquer.

Also, once the top coat is fully cured can I use my Vallejo acrylics for detailing and weathering etc.

Regards, Chris.

It’s a definite yes for using Vallejo for detail painting over lacquer. I’ve been doing that for years.

I’ve never used citadel chaos Black myself, though I have used diluted Tamiya jar lacquer over Vallejo and Army painter acrylic primers with no issues. It will need a light touch though. If you inadvertently flood the surface from the spray, the solvent will probably react badly with the primer.

Best to practice first on a test subject (old plastic packaging or such) to see what happens I think.

[Jim R]

Ditto to Tim's post. A lot of the problems with incompatible paint layers is down to not allowing enough time for paint to properly cure and/or, as Tim said, flooding on the paint.

[Guest]

My question is, can I prime the Churchill tank with my can of Citadel chaos black and then top coat it with Tamiya TS-2 dark green or will the 2 paints react because chaos black is acrylic and TS-2 is a synthetic lacquer.

Don’t forget that you can always test this sort of thing: take a piece of the kit’s sprue (one that’s devoid of parts), spray a bit of it with the Citadel paint, leave that to dry as you normally would, and spray the Tamiya paint over it.

[Scratchbuilder]

You should be ok with the black as your primer. I have now changed to Mr Hobby black primer (airbrushed 50/50) and had no problems with it affecting any parts of my Scimitar. As Jakko said if in doubt use a bit of sprue or plasticard as your test piece.
The question has been asked many times and we never get tired of answering it - even from experienced modellers that want to try out a new process.

[malvern_man]

Thank you for your replies and the info.

I needed to order a few items from the Scale Model Shop so I added a tin of Tamiya grey fine surface primer. I will try the Citadel primer/Tamiya top coat though on a piece of spruce.