Badger Stynylrez Test #1

I like Mr. Surfacer, I do.  No one can prep a model like he can. Hell, if it weren't for him, many of my models would never have been finished.

Sadly, Mr. Surfacer is... smelly. Yep, you invite him into a small apartment and he stinks up the place. The rest of the family living in the small apartment asks that Mr. Surfacer never gets invited over again. So that leaves me trying to coax a spray can to put out on the balcony, and, well, that never leads to anything good.

I’ve tried other primers. Vallejo primers come in many different shades, look nice and being acrylic, they don't smell. But they also don't sand. What the hell do you do with a primer you can't sand? Maybe it isn’t a problem for a perfect builder, but I'm far from perfect. Alclad primer is interesting because it needs no thinning, but it is still a smelly lacquer. Tamiya Fine Surface Primer and Mr. Surfacer seem indistinguishable unless you want to paint white. Mr. Finishing Surfacer, especially in black, is pretty neat, but he is just as smelly as his less finished friend.

So…my clandestine relationship with Mr. Surfacer continued. I'd invite him over during the day in hopes that his smell would be gone by the time the rest of the family arrived home. I even deluded myself that the girls wouldn’t notice.  But notice they did.

So you can imagine how excited I was to read about the new Badger Stynylrez. The net said it was an acrylic primer with no odor that was easy to spray and sandable. Is this even possible, I wondered. Could my dreams come true? Or was it all marketing puffery? (The net’s never wrong, right?)

With so many choruses from so many corners, I decided to give it a try for myself. A set of three 4 ounce bottles was ordered from Amazon. White, black, and grey. The package arrived yesterday, so tonight it was time for an experiment. How would this stuff spray?

I decided to try it out on the Battle of the Barrister's Hurricane which had been primed with Mr. Finishing Surfacer Black. Of course, the primer highlighted errors where I had tried to remove the spurious fabric around the ammo bay doors.  Out came the sanding sticks and pads to make the corrections. Feeling pretty smooth, it was time to check again with another coat of primer.

The instructions make it clear that the primer should be applied at 30 PSI. That seems high, but I'm a follower. So I dialed in the pressure and added a few drops to the colour cup of the Iwata Eclipse. I misted on a light coat and then followed up with a heavier coat for coverage. I had no issues with the paint flowing through the brush and the the grey covered the black primer with no issues. Cleaning the airbrush was easy with some water. The finish looks pretty good, though not glass smooth. The best news is that neither female occupant of the apartment noticed any smell at all.

So far, so good, but the real test will come tomorrow. Can I sand out the still lingering issues around the ammo bay doors?