So... it started out with using sanding twigs (great product, by the way! I didn't know these existed till a couple weeks ago!) to smooth out some areas on my ISD's paint scheme where the odd microscopic spec occurred due to my careless airbrushing. I only saw them putting the model like 2 inches from my face, but I have OCD sometimes (well, all the time...)

Then, before I was going to paint the next layer on, I washed it under warm water while gently scrubbing with a soft bristle tooth brush to get rid of the loose particles.

Then it happened. All the paint sloughed off revealing the original, much-not-to-my-liking FFG paint scheme.

I did this with my other two ISD's without any detrimental effects. Then I remembered...

I thought I would be all smart and save some (slightly hard to get for me) Testor's Camo Grey by pre-tinting the panel lines brighter using white watercolor BEFORE I laid down the basecoat. That made a nice, water-soluble layer which my waterproof paint was sitting on top of...ceasing to be really be waterproof.

Lesson of the day: paint in order of solvent-vulnerability (I believe some people call this painting hot to cold). So if you're going to mix media (which is darn right helpful for allowing you to fix mistakes incrementally) do so in this order:

epoxy resins - laquers/enamels/acrylics (sort of interchangeable) - oils - water colors - pigments/powders/pastels.

Thankfully, my other two ISD's are just fine because I decontrasted the panel lines with the basecoat color turned into a wash via flow-aid and water (much more time consuming, but it prevents aforementioned problem if you're trying to correct something with water!)

Oooouch...

Its not a common-persons problem, but when it happens, it sucks, doesn't it?

Although I'm surprised you kept the original FFG scheme there...

I've honestly had better (and smoother) paint adhesion by completely removing it beforehand...

Am I the only one who see's this conversation in the little Star Wars language icons instead of English?

Um... what?

Have you ever been told to wash a model before you paint it, Xindell? So you remove the Mold Release from it, so your paint will stick?

90% of the time, when we're painting models, we're doing it with Water Based Acrylics... All Water Based. So they're Soluable in Water...

However, there are some things that Oil based paints are better at...

What happened, was DUR put on some Water based Paints. He then put Oil based paint over the top, but not completely... Then, when water was introduced, it essentially seeped underneath the layer of oil, dissolved the Water based Paint (Which what was adhering the Oil paint to the Plastic Model), sloughing it completely off.

(As a note, this was probably not purely oilbased paints, but a waterproof enamel or something similar, on top of that water soluable tinting... There are many different products that, mostly, only "Very Experienced" modellers get into...)

Oooouch...

Its not a common-persons problem, but when it happens, it sucks, doesn't it?

Although I'm surprised you kept the original FFG scheme there...

I've honestly had better (and smoother) paint adhesion by completely removing it beforehand...

I'm leaving it on because I can isolate the bumps with sanding and in the very unlikely event I want to sell my precious ships, I can confidently say that a simple green bath will return them to fresh out of the package condition

I feel your pain. Have 't done that, but other mistakes.

In other games I've sprayed on some serious varnish before to avoid this but that was only when I was intentionally going to paint damage or weathering.

Been there...done that...got sent to the spice mines of kessel for it as well :/

Thankfully I don't paint on a high enough level that I risk this happening to me

I don't think we can use the phrase "terrible, terrible..." to describe a situation in which one of our three very expensive luxury toys was, after we spent spare time hobbying it, was returned to original condition, which was pre-assembled and pre-painted by Chinese (in effect) slave-labor before being shipped and ported around the world to us.

Just sayin'

Nevertheless, still an unfortunate and frustrating thing to have happened, no doubt. And one of the reasons I also do "half-assed" painting, wherein I just basically dry brush new colors onto prepainted FFG plastics (though I did use a brush-on primer for the fighters).

My lesson learned:

I painted lead and pewter miniatures a long time ago in a galaxy far away. I've also done some work (much more recently) restoring a small sailboat. Both are pretty forgiving when it comes to harsh solvents. Not thinking, I had a Y-Wing that FFG graciously replaced (for a manufacturing defect) that was begging to be my guinea pig to resurrect my paint dabbling. I grabbed the acetone (I can hear your collective "oh boy, here we gooo") and knowing how harsh it could be, figured I'd be clever and do very fast swipes with q-tips to help remove some of the factory paint. Well, apparently acetone is faster than me haha. I didn't completely ruin the model fortunately, but it ended up taking away A LOT of the detail (panel lines especially). In the end, it came out looking like I used the "one coat of paint" technique. However, with enough dark brown wash (the base color was a light aircraft grey) it is very passable as a really old Grey Squadron Y. So, the lesson: DON'T USE ACETONE ON PLASTIC hahahahaha.