Rhino bits

All of these tank parts were primed in Army Painter matte black, they came out seemingly high gloss and sticky to the touch and the paint would smudge off on finger tips. I'm not sure what causes this effect but I've noticed it on a surprising number of models, some resin, others plastic and even pewter.

I painted over some of these models to see what would happen. They took paint fine and it seemed ok, but i just didn't like it. The sticky, shiny some times glass smooth finish before painting just doesn't sit with me.

So i did some research. I'm still not sure what causes it because I've since switched back to...(urm) Krylon, i think (the cans are in the shed pretty sure its krylon though, will correct later if I'm wrong) and it still happens to about 1 out of every 5 models (28-32mm infantry) i prime. This only happens with black primer, until last year I've never seen it happen AT ALL which also strikes me as weird but whatever.

So my final decision was to just dip these tank bits and if i have to re-prime them than i have to re-prime them. However after leaving (forgetting) these resin bits in the simple green for almost a month (waaay beyond the intended dip-time) i was very pleasantly surprised to pull one out and find the detailed areas a strange blood red color. I toothbrush it off and find the shiny, sticky finish just totally gone. The piece looks perfectly primed in matte black, in fact they all do.

I have no idea what happened or why or how.

 

NOTE: I thought maybe I'd primed them too close or too many passes or maybe didn't wash them well enough before priming (for resin). But the shiny-sticky finish was so prevalent regardless of brand of paint, distance between model and can or even angle, not to mention models of all materials ending this way. That I feel it couldn't be me, it has to be the paint.

 

TLDR: If your black primer dries sticky and shiny, just give the model a dip and a gentle scrub.