Problems with AK 3rd Gen Black Primer

[Beanie]

Hello all,
Firstly, Happy New Year.
I was very fortunate to have been bought some Scale Model Shop vouchers for Christmas and I decided to try and make the leap from Mr. Surfacer to something a little less smelly for priming so I went and bought Grey and Black as these are the most common colours I use for priming.

However, upon first use of the Black Primer it webbed up, insane tip dry and shot out what i can only describe as clumps of paint everywhere.

I decided to do a little test between the Grey and Black Primers

My settings are fairly standard I think, 15psi through a 0.4 nozzle Badger Patriot also tried through my Inifinity (again 15psi) with the exact same results.


Looks rubbish right.........
So I mixed up a little more in a cup and noticed this.


It looks like bubbles but it's not. after literally only three drops of AK Thinner I can only assume the pigment has just dropped out of suspension and clumped together.
So at this point I broke out some old plastic I had left over and did a side by side test.


Now I'm not the greatest airbrush operator in the world i'll freely admit that but to me the grey looks ok (despite the chunks of black overspray).

Do you think I just have a dodgy batch of primer?

I really wanted this to work and to move away from the smelly stuff but at the moment Mr. Hobby is just better.

Should I get another bottle of the black and see if it was a batch error? The Grey seemed fine to me.

 

[Jim R]

Very frustrating Andrew. Looking at you photos and reading your post, to my mind, it is down to one of two factors.
Firstly, as you say, a bad batch of AK primer or some form of contamination. Maybe the thinner or something in the airbrush.
If you dip a coffee stirrers into the neat primer and let it drip off the end is the paint left on the stirrer smooth or are there lumps? If the paint layer is not smooth and glossy (it will be glossy when wet) but has little lumps then the primer itself is your problem.
Others may have other ideas.

 

[Mark1]

I might just need one of those till both your arms fall off shakes if its been sitting for a while.

 

[Beanie]

If the paint layer is not smooth and glossy (it will be glossy when wet) but has little lumps then the primer itself is your problem.

Thanks for the reply Jim R. I did what you suggested and got this. Straight from the bottle


I think it may just be a bad batch

Thanks for the suggestion Mark1, I forgot to mention it my first post but I've already shaken the bottle to within an inch of it's life....... and mine!

 

[Jim R]

That doesn't look right to me Hard to tell from a photo but it looks 'gloopy'. I think I'd just cut my losses. Not really worth risking a model.

 

[Beanie]

I might contact AK and see if I can whinge my way into a replacement.

Thanks

 

[john]

I might contact AK and see if I can whinge my way into a replacement.

Thanks

As when you buy any product you need to go back to the company you bought it from, AK will tell you to contact me, I've already spoken to them for you

The last two month of last year we had some items with several batches of black primer, after we had detected the problem the warehouse moved them away but we might have left some bottles out and this one might be defective one.

If you want to send me your order number I will sort out a replacement, I'm just waiting to see if they have a batch number for them

 

[Jim R]

If you want to send me your order number I will sort out a replacement.

The usual great customer service. Unfortunately, Andrew, it's becoming rarer but luckily alive and kicking at Scale Model Shop.

 

[David Lovell]

If you didn't want the smell of mr surfacer why not switch to mr hobby aqueous surfacer primer Black grey and white behaves the same as mr surfacer but is acrylic excellent stuff easy to thin and use. Im pretty sure John stocks it. Dave

 

[Beanie]

As when you buy any product you need to go back to the company you bought it from, AK will tell you to contact me, I've already spoken to them for you



If you want to send me your order number I will sort out a replacement, I'm just waiting to see if they have a batch number for them

Thanks John I really appreciate it. You were right when you say they’ll want me to go back you about it.

I’ll send you whatever details you need and post the bottle back.

Thank you for the help.