Metal black as primer?

[Paul Willis]

Or to be more accurate, Casey's Gun Blue as a surface preparation prior to painting?

I opened my aged bottle of Comet metal primer earlier this evening to find that it had reduced over the years (without active usage!) to about half of the volume that it used to be. I suspect that it is too thick for safely either spraying or brushing on thinly.

Absent any thinners for it, I moved on to thinking about the purpose of primer - to provide a good adhesive surface for paint. and with that in mind I started thinking about the other forms of metal preparations that I have, including the gun blue.

So has anyone tried it? Does it work? Anything to beware of?

TIA
Flymo

[Philip Hall]

I'm not sure about gun blue as an effective replacement primer for metal, but following Martyn Welch's advice I always blacken vulnerable edges with the gun blue or an etching marker pen. This is particularly useful on the front of wheel tyres, where paint always seems to rub off when they're being cleaned. I also tend to use acrylic paints these days on chassis, as I can splosh the weathering on quite happily so long as there's oil in the bearings and nothing seems to get gummed up. Being water based, you'd expect them not to have much sticking power, but on top of the blackening they seem to stay put well enough. But if they do rub off, you've got the black underneath. On bodywork I blacken sharp edges, footplates etc. and then use a can of primer from Halfords.

Philip

[craig_whilding]

I use Games Workshop black spray straight over the top of blackened brass/nickel silver without issues. I've never used a primer with this spray anyway even without blackening.

I haven't managed to buy some blackening for Exactoscale stainless steel wheels yet though as brass black didn't work on this though it works fine on normal steel.

[Philip Hall]

My etching marker pen blackens stainless steel effectively (and I've just checked it on an Exactoscale wagon wheel). I think you can get them from Eileen's now, alternatively try MSC/JL Industrial. Link below.

http://www.mscjlindustrial.co.uk/LNR-52 ... oduct.html

Philip

[craig_whilding]

My etching marker pen blackens stainless steel effectively (and I've just checked it on an Exactoscale wagon wheel). I think you can get them from Eileen's now, alternatively try MSC/JL Industrial. Link below.

http://www.mscjlindustrial.co.uk/LNR-52 ... oduct.html

Philip

Thanks for the info, i'll try and pick one up at Railex.

[Tim V]

Or a black permanent felt tip marker from your local stationers

[LesGros]

Hi Tim,
I have seen the suggestion to use black marker on edges before painting to make paint chipping less obvious; do you also use it as an overall surface preparation before painting?