The Little World

I am currently working with three bottles of undercoat paint – but not because I need to. Any one of the three choices would be fine…except I cannot resist trying new brews as they appear in the hobby shop.

I am perfectly satisfied with Tamiya undercoat in the spray can and have used up many of them. But they have a pretty fast pressure and a good deal of overspray – I’d say this method is fine for large models but wasteful for small ones. Currently I’m out of it, but have some pots of Creos GSI material.

The Mr. Surfacer 1000 is grey, thick, and easy to mix. I cut it with Mr. Color Levelling Thinner and it goes on well from an airbrush. It sands pretty well and covers some of the smaller blemishes – but it also highlights the larger ones.

The Mr. Surfacer 1200 is thinner, and sprays a little better, but won’t disguise cracks and flaws. Still, as i get better with prep, it is a nice material to use.

The Mr. Primer Surfacer 1000 is about the same consistency as the other 1000 grade, but doesn’t seem to cover as well. I can’t be fussy, because I have two jars of it to use up, but it is not the favourite.

I will say that I think a good undercoat is essential – even with washing of plastic parts, some kits still seem to have a parting agent that clings to the surface and occasionally it makes paint bead up. If you spray the undercoat first this doesn’t happen and the adhesion of the final paint to the plastic is very much stronger. Less likelihood of paint lifting when you remove masking tape.