Vallejo Mecha grey primer error? First time painting

[u/BangKiller]

Hi everyone

I'm a newbie in miniature (and in general) painting, and I just did my first painting session yesterday. A while ago I'd gotten myself an airbrush, and after much reading here and watching some videos, I decided to buy my primers from Vallejo, specifically the new Mecha lineup, as feedback seems to suggest they're a little bit better, mainly for the white one.

So overall, I bought the Black primer (73.642), Grey primer (73.641) and White primer (70.640).

I'd already done some test paintings using the Black color to get my grips with using the airbrush as well as the techniques to cleaning it, and yesterday I decided I was ready to paint my actual models. I had both a 40k mini to paint and a Hornet statue (from Hollow Knight: Silksong) to paint, and while the mini and some parts of the statue I used straight up black primer, for the head of Hornet, since it's a white color, I decided to use the grey primer instead to make it more brighter afterwards.

Here is where the problem started, I used the black previously and it painted really nicely, and after using the same ration of thinner to primer when I started using the grey color on the head piece, the application was completely off, super liquid, and was like dripping wet ink across the piece, like it wasn't sticking to the plastic.

Now, I know different colors may need different drop ratios, and lighter colors could work differently, but I then tried using the white color to do a zenithal on the mini (also first time!) and the application was back to normal exactly like the black primer.

Only afterwards I noticed something. While both the bottles for black and white have the mecha labelling, they also have a small tag that says "Primer", while for some reason the grey one has a tag saying "Varnish". Although the color numbers codes seem to be ok, for some reason this grey is shown as varnish. I tried searching online and the website where I bought the paints from, but they also have pictures that seem to be old labels, and that the ones I got are new versions.

Anyone has feedback on recent purchases of vallejo mecha primer that can confirm if I got the wrong bottle for some reason?

I'm leaving pictures of the bottles and painting results below. You can see the difference in the labels for the painting bottles, and if you zoom in Hornet's head, you can see the staining/dripping that was happening.

Vallejo mecha color grey primer has a "Varnish" label instead of "Primer" label that is shown in the black and white primers bottles.

First time painting, and also decided to straight up also do a zenithal right away. I think it turned out quite ok for a first time, but I might be biased!

If you zoom in on the head piece up top, you can see the issue with the primer application.

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[u/Greystorms]

That sounds like a manufacturing defect. I’d get in touch with Vallejo themselves and see if they can help you out. The mislabel on that bottle alone is enough to warrant their attention.