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Being a relative "newbee" to this hobby I can use some of your valuable experience. I've begun assembling building kits from various manufacturers; Piko(also distributed under Con Cor & Model Power brand name), DPM, City Classics, Main Street Heritage, Bachman, Walthers, and Supply Line (Those are the manufactuer's kits I've tried todate). I do not have an airbrush so I am hand painting all of the kits with a brushes. My better half has dabbled in painting so I have a nice supply of good artist brushes at my disposal. I have been using only "craft" acrylics, mainly the Americana brand carried locally by Michaels. I find that I usually have to thin these, and todate I've only used tap water. I've been trying to absorb all of the great information posted on these forums about painting. . For example, I've definitely found that washing with warm water and detergent is a necessity before beginning the painting, regardless of the type of plastic and whether or not its a casting or an injection molded part. Don't wash and you never know what the outcome will be. Right now I'm trying to focus in on whether or not to prime the part after cleaning/washing. And so far, this priming option has been a different learning curve from washing/cleaning!! Using just an inexpensive enamel primer from Home Depot didn't work with every manufacturer's plastic. What it always did, however, was fill in all of the voids in the part and in many cases wipe out too much detail. The spray nozzle on these cans is just not fine enough, in my opinion, to maintain the brick detail, for example, especially on some of the older kits where the molds may be starting to show their age and the mortar joints are starting to wear away.. I then tried a can of Rust-Oleum Specialty Plastic Primer, again available from Home Depot but at a slighly elevated price. This definitely adheres to all of the plastics I've used it on much better that the regular can of spray primer. However, again the droplets/spray particles are large and tend to wipe out some of the detail as above. I've tried wiping before it completely dries, but with mixed results. I've also tried to lightly go over it with fine grade steel wool after it completely dries, again with mixed results, and a lot of extra effort.. So I'm back to the question again: prime or no prime when hand brushing craft acrylics on plastic building models from any of the suppliers of these kits. If I don't use any primer, I preserve the detail better but the paint does not flow as easily and doesn't always adhere as well. Use primer and I risk the loss of detail and/or make more work for myself. George
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