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I'm having major frustrations trying to paint a Walthers Merchants Row III. Since it represents a structure of a later period, I bricked-over the window openings in the back. I then proceeded to "whitewash" the rear wall as is frequently done on prototype structures where the owners assume that none of their customers will see it.
Anyhoo, I first had to cut out some pieces of brick sheet in the shape of the arch-topped windows. I traced the cutting lines with a red Sharpie fine-point permanent marker since that was all I had at the moment. But after I applied a coat of Polly Scale Reefer White acrylic paint, the marker ink soaked into the white paint from the underside of the window panels. And I can't seem to cover it with either water-based or oil-based paints, the ink always reacts and leeches into the paint! The photo below shows the model after I rubbed off the paint with 91% isopropyl alcohol - that red ink still keeps on seeping thru.
Does anybody know some way I can salvage this project, by spraying some type of sealant on before I paint? I need something that will not mix with the ink - if such a material exists.
Boy--is this an interesting pickle. If I have my druthers I'd be looking very closely at the red and seeing if it couldn't be incorporated into the brickwork somehow--I'm not sure that an acrylic sealant (somehow I started to think about silicon---don't ask!) might not work but it might be worth a try at any rate.Try it on something else before putting it on this--I'd be also thinking of redoing the windows by covering those up but if it is leeching---this almost sounds like, or rather looks like it isn't quite permanent.
If the ink isn't quite permanent then one can keep wiping it down--or toning it down. The only other thing that I could come up with was to darken the red by going to a darker value.
Certain plastics do, in fact, suck up the ink pigments into the plastic as well because they are porous up to a point. So there may be a way through that---who knows
Ken, knowing the type of modeler you are, just go ahead and knock out those three bad panels. Use them as templates, cut three new ones, glue 'em in, and paint. You're never going to get that ink to stop leaching through enough to please you.
Thanx, guys, for the responses. I wound up following Jim's suggestion and popping-out all of the panels that weren't glued in, and cutting out new ones for those were cemented. I had to use so much brute force to peel the backing sheet off, that the whole building broke apart along the corner seams. I soaked everything in alcohol to get off whatever ink I could see, but some of it is in the mortar lines and hard to get at.
Boc - your idea [of using reddish paint] seems like a good one, except that the mortar lines would have to be painted a lighter concrete color - which would still show the leeching ink.
I had to interrupt this project to go to work, I'll keep you all posted...
The problem is that you are using a solvent to clean them, and as you apply anything with alcohol (Sharpie ink is soluble in isopropyl and other alcohols), it dissolves and makes it bleed. As the alcohol dissolves it, the alcohol then carries it all over; then the alcohol evaporates leaving the ink behind wherever it went.
The only solution, short of starting over, is to keep after it with the alcohol. Try applying ithe alcohol and then immediately wicking it up into a Kleenex. Don’t wipe it, just stick a corner or edge into the alcohol. It will carry the ink with it into the tissue. Always use a clean section of tissue. It will take time but eventually you will wick all the ink up.
I dissassembled the entire back section and wiped everything down with alcohol. After I put the window brick panels back in, I masked off the other areas and spray-painted the back wall with white primer, in several ultra-thin, fast-drying coats. After 30 minutes, still no bleeding.
I guess the red Sharpie market just collapsed in Baltimore then. I think the disassembly, clean up, reassembly, and repaint job should do the trick and give you the results you want.
The photo below shows the model after I rubbed off the paint with 91% isopropyl alcohol - that red ink still keeps on seeping thru.
