I have not had good luck using Rustoleum primer with the Nelson water-based paints. I did some tests with several different primers back last winter because Nelson was out of their white primer and I didn't want to use the gray because I was trying to color match Monokote. Forget using any type of automotive fast dry primer as they have wax in them that helps with dry sanding. The wax will prevent the Nelson water-based paint from sticking because it has no solvents in it to chemically bond with the primer. I also tried Rustoleum primer which seemed to work okay at first but after a couple of weeks I got chipping. The paint doesn't peel like it would with lacquer primers but it does chip easily and I don't like that.

The primer that I ended up using and worked perfectly (believe it or not) is Lusterkote white primer. I know, I know, everybody complains about Lusterkote paint and so do I but the primer works fine. My pattern bird is Nelson over Lusterkote primer, the colors match the Monokote perfectly, and the paint is surviving a full pattern season quite well.