Hey, guys. I've got a small conundrum. I painted some small Shapeways pieces with enamels a while back. I'd done some quick googling to see if enamels were compatible with Shapeways plastic and found favorable results, so I went for it. Turns out it works better with some of their plastics than others--it looks great on the frosted extreme detail piece, but it took about a month to cure. I know it wasn't an issue with the humidity or paint thickness, because the same enamel cured fine on a piece made of different material. The enamel looked way better than acrylics did, so I'd love to use it again on another FED piece--without the curing delay presumably caused by incompatibility between the plastic and the paint. Is there anything that would work well to prime the surface and prep it for enamel? Thanks!
Prime time... There are some good primers out there. The easiest to get your hands on will be either the Rustoleum or Krylon plastic primer. ALWAYS follow their directions completely. Liiiiiiiite coats and let it cure. Gently sand it.... You may have: Not mixed your paint well enough before applying it... Not cleaned the part well enough. There could have been oil or residue on the plastic... Had dumb luck with an piece of plastic... Some parts will not take primer or paint. Sometimes "super glues" like zap will stick to the plastic and give you something to then put the paint on. Good luck.
With the detail plastics, it's worth washing them in warm, soapy water before painting. They use wax supports which can leave a residue that inhibits paint cure.
NP! Oh, hey, while I think about it? Try a quick soak & shake in Isopropyl alcohol and then letting it dry off before priming also. It's great at cleaning away all sorts of stuff.
