Hobby Boss Model refuses to take primer... I'm truly perplexed. Help?

[SIGABRT]

Hello. I've been building tabletop wargaming miniatures for a while... this is my first proper scale model for lack of a better term and I'm hoping someone will be able to help.

I bought a cheap 1:700 Los Angeles Class submarine model kit made by Hobby Boss. I took it off the sprue, cleaned up the flash and mold lines, etc... then I let it soak in tepid water with a few drops of dish soap to clean off any chemical residue from the casting process. Same process I've used for ages with Warhammer 40K models.

I'm rather partial to the Army Painter range of paints. I use the canned spray primer, straight out of the bottle with brushes and I've dialed in the right reduction for using them in my airbrushes. Right, so...

I laid the kit pieces out and gave the hull one quick swipe over with the white spray primer. The paint would not lay down at all... it globbed up straight away... so I quickly grabbed the hull pieces and threw them in my jar of purple Super Clean... where it will sit for a bit in an attempt to strip that globbed up paint off and hopefully it will be salvageable.

I had a Space Marine ready to be primed as well so I grabbed it and gave it a coat with the same can just to make sure the paint wasn't too cold or not mixed enough or had just gone bad... it laid down as it always does, perfectly.

Good thing I bought 2 kits (I had a feeling something was going to go pear shaped)... so, I have the other one ready to prime... I went through the same process. Took the bits off the sprue, removed flash and mold lines, dry fit, then soaked it in tepid water with a few drops of dish soap... same thing I've done for little Space Marines to fairly large pieces of armor and flyers...

Is there something that I am missing in preparing this model? Is it the model itself? I'm going through the same ritual as I usually do, using the same paints, painting in the same place... I honestly do not know what the problem is.

I thought I could parlay my mini building and painting 'skill' (and I use that word loosely) into making my brother a model of the boat he was on... apparently I'm having really bad luck, or my assumption that I could use the same technique I use when building and preparing minis to proper scale models.

I'm trying to get myself sorted before I start on his proper present which is a slightly larger version (1:350). I bought two of those as well.

If anyone has any tips at all... I would greatly appreciate it.

 

[Elm City Hobbies]

Likely a bit more mold release on it than a couple of drops of dish detergent would take away.

Once you get the one out of the Super Clean and washed up...it should be good to go. If the SC doesn't take the mold release away (the SC being a degreaser it should), then I don't know what to tell you.

Sometimes it takes a bit more than just a couple of drops of dish detergent in water to get the mold release off, sometimes the parts need a little scrub. Take your SC spray a bit on and got at the parts with an old toothbrush. If that doesn't work, I don't think anything will.

 

[SIGABRT]

Thanks for the advice! Much obliged. I knew I had to be doing something stupid.

 

[WebbyNZ]

I have also become a big fan of the army painter primers and have not found anything they won't lay down perfectly on.
I agree with ECH and suspect release agent or even detergent on the parts and that a scrub w a old toothbrush helps dislodge it, followed by a rinse of course.