SPA Modeler

Stikpusher wrote: ↑Fri Feb 17, 2023 8:03 pm Ouch! Just curious, but what paint are you using? Terrible that it had such poor adhesive and bonding properties!

Yes, as I venture farther and farther into the world of acrylics, I'd like to know that too. That's one issue I've seldom had to deal with using enamels all these years. And one I'd like to avoid as well.

John that is a tough brak, but I am confident you will make a seamless repair!

Ouch! I hate it when that happens. I'll be watching how you will tackle this mishap. I'm sure it can be salvageable somehow.

John I had a similar problem on my super hornet. I finally came to the conclusion it wasn’t my handling of it. It only happened in one large spot on the bottom and I really believe it’s mold release that’s still on the model. After basically taking duct tape to it to find all the loose spots I ended up having to wipe it down with lacquer thinner to get the paint to stick(my 1st attempt at repair i laid down some primer and it still lifted). I was doing something similar to you in that I did not use primer. I was using an acrylic lacquer. that stuff practically eats away at the model on a normal basis and you can never get it off. So it’s surprising to have paint lift. 90% of the model had no problems with paint lifting. It may really just be about prep work and washing the model down with some Dawn dishwashing liquid ahead of time as well when not using primer.

I wish you luck on the repair, I’m sure you’re gonna make it look great again.

I've had vallejo model air do this, paired with fighting awful tip dry I gave up trying to airbrush vallejo. Like has been said could be mold release, I always wipe down the model before paint with rubbing alcohol now.

I had this happen with Vallejo over Gunze. Vallejo just wont stick well to non-primered surfaces. I sanded down with 3k, primed the spot and reprinted the masks. Shot it once again with Vallejo over primer and hand no issues. Lesson learned. I actually love Vallejo for Airbrushing, never had tip dry like others do. Maybe my humidity levels here or maybe that I only use their AB thinner with spraying it, never straight from the bottle. Good luck on the repair. Been there, done that.

Thanks guys! The paint lift occurred over the bare, unsanded portions of the fuselage. Multiple layers of paint involved but the base was Tamiya AS-12 Silver lacquer.

After removing as much of the weak spots as I could with sticky tape, I sanded the area with 600# sandpaper first and then 1000# sandpaper to feather the edges of the paint down to the plastic and hopefully not leave any hard edges.



The general area was then sprayed with Mr Surfacer 1000 thinned with Mr Leveling Thinner.



Most of this area will be covered with high contrast markings so I decided to skip the marble pre-shade and just half-heartedly trace some panel lines with black. In parallel with the fuselage repair work, I re-did the upper wing stars and bars.


The Olive Drab was then restored. The Real Color OD 81 was sprayed first and then a slightly lightened version was sprayed over that. So here's where we are at now...





I've also started to weather the fuselage sides and wing root area by gently Micromeshing the OD paint to reveal traces of the Tamiya AS-12 Silver base layer.


A closer look a the completed stars and bars on the wing.

Looks like the mishap never happened. Nice save

Perfect! That is another great thing about weathering and doing a worn look, if you do have to rework something it’s much easier to blend it in.

Time to test the new paint finish and paint the stars and bars again. First the blue.



And then the white.



Moment of truth... pulling off the masks!



Masking is not done yet but zero paint lift so far gives me confidence in getting the rest of the markings on. Fingers crossed!