Woodland Scenics General Store kit

 Did you clean the plastic before priming? It could be the mold release that's causing the issue. What brand/type of primer did you use?

Wipe off as much of the primer as you can then use paint thinner on a rag to wipe off the rest.

Some primers that are oil based will attack the plastic.

Try cleaning the primer off. This may be a challenge w/o ruining the parts. Mixing of unknown solvents could be the cause.

If you get them cleaned, use a regular acrylic water base paint and you should be fine.

If you get this off successfully please post how you accomplished that without destroying the plastic.

Well, the other thing you could do is....call Woodland Scenics, ask for their technical support for structures, pose the question to them directly.  After all, the paint crew in China knows how to deal with these details, I imagine WS-USA staff does, too.

I've called WS several times re technical questions of my own or on behalf of our customers (LHS) and ALWAYS found them to be patient, helpful, and interested. 

I will freely admit that not all suppliers to the hobby are as willing to answer our individual questions.  But WS folks are not among that bunch....they're first rate, IMHO.

KD

Oh, and BTW....  Had I encountered this sprue of parts and its 'rubbery' feel, I might have tried some Pactra paints I have on hand.  Unfortunately, the Pactra paints are among the casualties of the Testors/Floquil miasma....sale to Rustoleum folks, etc., etc.,etc..  Pactra paints were the mainstay for the R/C cars/trucks crowd because, applied to the car bodies, they would adhere well to the paintable car/truck bodies and take the flexing/impact abuse those hobby products are put through.  In fact, many model railroaders have learned that the Pactra paints were excellent for painting fragile/flexible handrails...like those supplied by Atlas, Athearn, Kato, etc...that were part of HO engines like RS's, GP's, SD's, etc.  Those rails were often molded of a Delrin or Delrin-like 'slippery' plastic to stand up to handling/flexing without a lot of fracturing.  Normal enamels and acrylics don't adhere well to the 'slippery' plastics.  The quasi-lacquer based Pactras did far better. 

I've not been staying in touch with the R/C hobby, Pactra conundrum, but I thought I'd share the thoughts.....FWIW, as usual.

KD,

great suggestion: I'm reaching out to WS now.

Wow, talk about great customer service! WS responded in one hour:

"Thank you for your interest in our products. You can remove the primer with Simple Green (full strength) or an orange based hand cleaner. The sprue with the garbage cans and barrels attached, is made of a softer plastic. Every spray primer is different and may have different reactions to the plastic. Paint thinner is a solvent-based material, and would make the plastic even more soft that what it already is. We do not recommend using the paint-thinner to remove the primer. I hope that this has helped. Good luck and happy modeling."

Christina McGuire

Sales & Customer Service

Woodland Scenics/PineCar/Scene-A-Rama

Try Krylon Fusion spray paint (available at hardware and home improvement centers) for the softer plastic parts. It's specifically designed for plastics. 

Joe

"Thank you for your interest in our products. You can remove the primer with Simple Green (full strength)

NOOOOO!

So, not a good idea?

Simple green will corrode steel. But thats only if it's left on the steel.

Wipe On Wipe Off!  perfect degreaser no problem. You could use WD-40.

 
Section 3:  COMPOSITION/INFORMATION ON INGREDIENTS of Simple Green: 
Ingredient    CAS Number  Percent Range 
Water           7732‐18‐5       ≥ 78% 
2‐butoxyethanol  111‐76‐2      ≤ 5% 
Ethoxylated Alcohol  68439‐46‐3     ≤ 5% 
Tetrapotassium Pyrophosphate  7320‐34‐5    ≤ 5% 
Sodium Citrate  68‐04‐2            ≤ 5% 
Fragrance  Proprietary Mixture  ≤ 1% 
Colorant  Proprietary Mixture  ≤ 1% 

Mostly water.

In my experience, Simple Green is a pretty good paint remover and does not harm most plastics.    Even better is "Purple Power" (or any of the purple-colored degreasers).  Buy it at Wal-Mart by the gallon.   It can be reused forever--the paint settles to the bottom.  Depending on the paint, you may have to soak it for anywhere from hours to weeks, but it has never failed me.

Update: I ended up just using rubbing alcohol to remove the majority of the sticky primer paint, then just painted over it with craft acrylic paints. Here's the progress so far. The kit itself goes together pretty easily, but the painting is quite tedious! They don't show in this shot, but I even painted on the seeds in the watermelon.

Update:

Since this building is to commemorate my grandfather's butcher shop in West Pittston, PA, I've removed any produce items and built an interior with meat coolers, etc. It's almost ready to be placed on the layout.

It is really looking great!

Art

Art,

I second that. The building came out great.

Alan Graziano