Hi everyone, apologies if this has been discussed before, but I didn't find much in a forum search. I'm preparing to strip a set of rough 346 coaches for a paint project, but I'm struggling to sort an appropriate Primer to use on these before final paint coats.

Does anyone have a recommendation, hobby paint or otherwise, preferably available in the US? Tamiya is my go-to for plastic models, but with the metal element I wasn't sure what to use.

I fear of rust or similar down the road, and once I strip these cars I'd like to get them properly coated ahead of a final paint spray. (In TEE livery!)

It is usually a good idea to use all coatings from the one manufacturer. They guarantee that their products will work well with each other.
In the automotive trade metal repair coatings are usually remove rust, polish, don't touch with fingers, rust converter, don't touch with fingers, primer surfacer, light rub with 600-1200 grit wet and dry and finally top coats/clear over colour.

Enjoy.


Regards.........Chook.

Thanks everyone, I'm continuing to research this as I can't find a clear recommendation anywhere.

I've just learned that Tamiya makes a metal primer, which is great, I'm just needing to sort how it might work with any potantial future rust blocking.

There is also Mr. Metal by Mr. Hobby, the brand which received rave reviews from my car-modeller friends.

Both the above are known commodities for plastic, but again I'm struggling to find a solid lithographed model railroad reference for them. Or even better someone with marklin experience.

If this experiment goes well, I'm going to expand to other metal marklin projects, (both litho and die cast locomotives) hence my curiosity...

Our Club President has used the Tamiya metal primer after firstly stripping the roofs back to bare metal. He used a Tamiya silver paint as the top coat.