Putting the Pain in Painting..

Sometimes the Hobby Gods simply don't feel like being on our side. Judging by the series of unfortunate events that have been happening to me these past weeks it seems like I have upset them... by actually feeling inspired and wanting to hobby.

I know right?

First, I had to experience first-hand what happens when you try to prime a model that has not been washed properly. Had to strip the paint off Black Ivan...
... which turned out to be a success!

Then I spent ~$100 on the NEW Citadel paints, a few nice paint brushes, a paint palette and some primers.. Ended up not being satisfied with the way P3 Black Primer covers metal (although this time there's no rubbing off resin), so Black Ivan is currently in for another Simple Green bath. Gah...
I mean, this time it was much better, but I just need a good coverage on the metal parts, because they are all super sharp and bedazzled with detail, so I can't have the paint cheap.. No, sir. I'll be using the Krylon Black Primer from now on. Have to order that from the manufacturer's website, though, since it's no longer in most stores...


Oh, and whaddaya know? The one day I really, really, really felt like painting I realized that I had left my newly acquired paints in my friend's car.... That was more than a week ago.
Now, weather has been pretty crazy here in Chicagoland. We're talking crazy humidity and high 80's-90F temperatures. It gets even worse inside a black car..
And of course many paints melted as the new shitty Citadel paint pots warped and paint leaked and dried up. Seriously! Even bored the incident I had trouble closing the new paint lids - even on paints that I had just opened to see the color inside. It's not like I was a savage and had dried paints around the ring of the lid, which would prevent it from closing properly. Nope. Some paints were literally untouched and still died on me. Below is a picture of the paints that were completely useless. Notice the plastic tray which I used as a paint palette once - it was also in the bag. Notice the warping..

I'm very disappointed. :( Looks like I'm going to have to splurge again on paints, huh? Seriously, what a fucking disaster. And of course the only paintbrush that got ruined in the whole mess of dried paint and leakage was my Kolinsky brush. Literally no other brushes were even touched by this cesspool of failure. Just my awesome brush. That was pretty cool. I think I managed to save some of the other paints that were in the car by adding some paint retardant/thinner... whatever the !@#$%^& it is. So hopefully that helps. The new Dry paints are hilarious when they are all dried up..

Oh! Oh! And to top it off, I really wanted to do some basing on the two 'jacks that I have painted, you know? Then I realized that I had forgotten my basing materials in Frozencore Joe's car. So a week or so ended up being wasted on stuff being stuck in people's cars.

Not a good week for Skarvald. Not a good week indeed. 

Black Ivan Down: Black No More!

Yesterday I posted about my priming malfunction with the Black Ivan and about the primer and paint peeling off way too easily.

Now, I was very unsure when I dropped the model in Simple Green.
I have used Simple Green to clean metal Games Workshop models and even an Ork Stompa, always with great results, but had never used the concentrated solution to clean Privateer Press' resin/plastic models. Even some pretty thorough Google Fu revealed only promises that Simple Green should work on resin/plastic models without melting the model itself.
The issue is, of course, that the resin/plastic which Privateer Press uses for their newer models is still relatively new and I'm guessing that not a lot of people have had to deal with such an issue..

Well I had to..  ;(

And, man, is Simple Green awesome! 

After 20 hours of soaking in Simple Green concentrate..

This is my Black Ivan model after approximately 20 hours spent inside concentrated Simple Green.
I took him out and gave him some scrubbing with an old brush and both the paint and primer simply disintegrated. I knew that the paint on the metallic parts would come off easily, but I was still very surprised with the results..

Now, keep in mind that this model was dunked in Simple Green a few hours after it was primed and that it was not cleaned in soapy solution before it was primed... a mistake which I'm never making again! If you have an older model, depending on the paint and primer used the results may not be the same and you might see some primer taint, which is when the primer gets inside the miniature and dyes it a certain color.

I'm going to leave Black Ivan in the solution for, oh I dunno, 8 or so more hours and then I'll drop him in a soapy solution for another 8 hours to make sure that all of the chemicals from the Simple Green are not present on the model when I prime him... AGAIN.

Black Ivan Down

Today I decided to work on my Black Ivan model, which was supposed to be my entry for the Lost Hemisphere's new monthly Paint the Target challenge
I was all excited about finally painting Harkevich's favorite 'jack.

Primed it black, using Privateer Press' Formula P3 Black Primer.
That's Negro Imprimador in Spanish for you, folks. Sounds intimidating, doesn't it?  
Wait a second.. I thought the adjective was supposed to be after the noun..

It was my first time priming with a P3 Primer and I was anxious at first. The weather outside was pretty hot, I suppose and it was slightly windy, but after shaking the can for ~1 minute I started priming and everything seemed alright.. The primer went on very smoothly and dried fast just like GW's (more expensive) Chaos Black Primer.
I was originally supposed to pick up a cheap-o Flat Black Krylon primer, but the nearby store was out of it, so I picked P3's Primer instead...

I started painting, following Hand Cannon Online's Tutorial: Basics – Back in Black: Painting Black Armour. I covered the model with a nice coat of Thamar Black (also my first P3 paint!) and started with the first coat of two-brush blending Coal Black on the armor plates, when I realized that I need a better brush for the actual blending part. So then I decided to start with the foundation for the rusty metal parts. There were a few spots that were difficult to reach with the sponges, so I decided to use a stippling brush.

And then when I applied slightly more pressure... the paint.. and the primer came straight off, revealing the grey resin/plastic underneath. Applying pressure with the tip of my fingernails also scratched the paint and got rid of the primer. I don't know what to think of it..

Was it the weather? Was it the primer? Did I not wait long enough for the primer to dry?

I suppose I should have cleaned the model with some soap water beforehand.. right?
But then again I didn't do that for my previous Warjacks and they were fine. I tried scratching the paint, and a lot of pressure is needed to show even a hint of grey...

I was just not feeling comfortable with the result, so I decided to throw the model in some Simple Green for a day or two and then see what happens... I'll give it a nice soap bath and I'll scrub it diligently with an old toothbrush.. and I'll be doing the same with all of my Privateer Press models.

Right now I've got Scrapjack soaking in a soapy solution and will try to prime it for tomorrow.
I have Flat Black Krylon, so hopefully things will be alright.