Tamiya TS sprays - Fragile?

[steveracer]

I have painted two cars with Tamiya paint, and found the paint to be fragile or brittle. It chips off real easily.
Both of these were over primer, and one was Tamiya primer for sure.

I just painted a car last night, over the light Tamiya primer, and am afraid to tape over this for another color, and need to be sure I handle it with care (fingernails chipped my previous paints during polishing).

Am I the odd guy out or is this a normal characteristic of Tamiya TS?

[PeteJ]

Not sure what is happening, but I have literally painted 100's of items with TS paints and never had any issue with it. I have often dropped painted items on a concrete floor and never seen a single chip. That is weird!

[JamesB]

Same here. Panzer like robustness here too...

[steveracer]

Pete. How about tape over the paint? How long do you wait to do a secondary color and have you had any distortion on the paint under the tape? I had that on one of my models.

[PTR]

Steve you mentioned you were painting in your garage in some thread here. Perhaps low temperature is the issue?

[MoFo]

TS or PS? Spray cans or bottle paints?

That's very much not like the behaviour I've had from TS spray cans, so I'm wondering if there's some sort of mix up. Are you polishing your primer coat?

[tubegenius]

Not to hog the thread here, but just how fine should the sanding of the primer coat be?

[bossy122]

Did the primer also come off? It may be the primer, I have had that happen many times. Not sure if it's the primer or that the surface underneath was "dirty". The only TS I've experienced problems with is TS 36 Fluo Red. Come to find out it cracks. Sometimes sooner, sometimes later, but all of my Mclarens have some degree of cracking.....damnit.

[steveracer]

Steve you mentioned you were painting in your garage in some thread here. Perhaps low temperature is the issue?

No temperature is not an issue - when I painted the first cars it was in my basement, and the new "paint shop" in my garage was up to 68 degreed F last night!

TS or PS? Spray cans or bottle paints?

That's very much not like the behaviour I've had from TS spray cans, so I'm wondering if there's some sort of mix up. Are you polishing your primer coat?

No I never have heard of "polishing" the primer coat, however I scuff it with 1200 or so fine paper or a scotch pad. There may be some areas that are not accessible that don't get scuffed up though...

Did the primer also come off? It may be the primer, I have had that happen many times. Not sure if it's the primer or that the surface underneath was "dirty". The only TS I've experienced problems with is TS 36 Fluo Red. Come to find out it cracks. Sometimes sooner, sometimes later, but all of my Mclarens have some degree of cracking.....damnit.

I believe the primer was intact, just the paint seemed fragile and cracked off in tiny areas. I believe one model I primed not with Tamiya primer. My favorite primer used to be Tempo, but that has been long gone. I think I used a duplicolor primer on a lot of my cars, and it worked very well....

For clarification I am talking about TS sprays, not the bottle acrylic. That is another topic for me, as I have never used the bottle acrylic for a body, and not sure if it even is capable as a body surface paint. Anyone?

[CK]

I use the bottle X series acrylic paint for my models a lot, both in gloss and mat. It works well when a bit of retarding agent is added to smooth the spray from an air brush.

I have bought some LP series bottle paint but has not used them yet. I have little experience with the TS spray can. I only used two TS cans in the past. The paint never flake off. I spray them directly onto plastic with no primer. I have to sand it off for one car that I change my mind on the color.

Here's my Porsche using Tamiya X-6 for the body.

Some people find the X paints too soft. I like it soft so polishing is easier. This Porsche is first wet sanded with 1500 and then polished using Tamiya polishing compound (fine) + polishing compound (finish). The paint has to be thick enough for all these procedures, otherwise it can be polished through. Again, I don't use primer. It is X-6 strict on plastic. There is no clear coat on top.