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Trying to get more into the painting of the hobby. Was wondering if anyone has come across cheaper spray primers (possibly available at lowes) that do the same job, allow paint to stick without drowning the details and making a blob monster.

Also as I was thinking about doing a hefty amount of vehicles, I would like to invest in a cheap but workable airbrush, possibly foot petal. Any advice on where to pick one up cheaply? Mabye used on ebay?

The Primer I use is from Lowes, $.97 a can. Generic can from the bottom shelf. Never had a can crap out on me like the GW cans do. I've had good luck with it for years.

On the air brush, don't go cheap, you get what you pay for. A good one will last for years if you take care of it.

HFN

Do you happen to know what brand it is? Is it only white or black, or other colors work too? Does it kill alot of the detail?

I would say air brush as well but I also have an air compresser =P

Economy Spray paint

black and white is all I've seen

HFN

I use the wal mart brand of white, grey and black primers/ spray paints for 97 cents too, never had any problems with them blobing or destroying details.

I have also tried the granite style paint its ok but goes on thick( i done a monolilth with it and its sits in the yard as a trianagle rock most nights)

I had some bad experience with the $.97 stuff on high humidity days (Lawrence, KS and Chicago, IL summers).

Duplicolor makes a good primer in multiple colors. It has never fuzzed on me in those same environments, and now in a drier Denver, CO climate.

About the only issue is that it takes about 30-45 minutes longer than the GW stuff to dry to the touch, unless you are 85+ degrees out.

I know people who have had no problems with other primers, but I've stuggled with them. Wether it's true or not I don't know, but i've heard that the GW primer is designed to shrink on drying and most other primers are designed to expand on drying.

As for a cheap air gun, GW is coming out with a $30US gun the the future. It uses disposable propellant canisters, but it's cheaper that buying a full system.

belgarath97 wrote:As for a cheap air gun, GW is coming out with a $30US gun the the future. It uses disposable propellant canisters, but it's cheaper that buying a full system.

Sadly I think it's still on recall for the hose popping out of its connector. Saved my $30 cause I was ready to dump in for it, having heard and seen good things from those who managed to get one and just glue the hose into place. I was hit by the airgun bug too but wasn't willing to shell out $40-50 for even a cheap one with compressor. So I make do with black GW spray for now - it is quite good, just expensive - but will be trying out some other colors from Home Depot (brass specifically) later in the summer when the heat and humidity is gone.

- Salvage

I've used Rustoleum automotive dark grey with good results. It's a little "toothier" than GW, but that's a matter of preference.

Others swear by Krylon grey and Duplicolor.

My undercoat experience(s): YMMV.

Citadel Black/White
Pros: Easy to find, smooth finish, very short dry time.
Cons: Expensive as gak, poor adhession as Citadel undercoats are paint and not primer, nozzles are rubbish - though replacing nozzles is easy.

Citadel Smelly Primer (brush on)
Pros: Good for repairs, though not much better than a paint undercoat for chips.
Cons: OOP. Tedious to do an entire model. Only came in white. Not actually smelly.

Krylon Black/White/Grey/Rust
Pros: Available at most hardware stores, about half as expensive as Citadel undercoat, strong adhession
Cons: Variable smoothness - I have had very good success with white and grey. The rust seemed to go on very thick. The black was very runny no matter how long the can was shaken. Medium dry time.

Duplicolor Automotive Primer Black (Have not tried other colors)
Pros: Available at most hardware stores, about half as expensive as Citadel undercoat, strong adhession, smooth finish, short dry time.
Cons: Nozzle produces a fine mist rather than the standard spray, though you get used to it.

Rustoleum Black (Have not tried other colors)
Pros: Available at most hardware stores, about half as expensive as Citadel undercaot, strong adhesion
Cons: Larger particulate may obscure fine detail, moderate dry time.

No-name Grey from Walmart (predominantly blue label) (Have not tried other colors)
Pros: Strong adhession, quick dry time, fine particulate. Dirt cheap, costing 1/4 the cost of GW undercoat.
Cons: Walmart keeps rotating their product lines. Was not able to find again.

Black auto-body primer works GREAT for me. Even a thick coverage dries well and conforms to the detail. Dries fast. I don't know the brand off the top of my head, might be duplicolor.

I use the Wal mart "color place" stuff on metals, flat white, and flat black. On metal if you have an issue it sucks to have to stirp it but it can be done with relatively no issues. The GW stuff is just cary over priced to use on metals on a large scale.

But on their plastics I never use anything but the GW stuff, the reason being is 2 things first removing jacked up primer from plastics is a NIGHTMARE and second, I have worked for several game stores that fully support the GW line in the last 15 years, and every time I have had primer fuzz ( only twice in 15 years ) or had a customer fuzz up his models, GW has replaced the models and the primer can.

As a store rep I like to take good care of my customers and I empress that on all the company reps I work with not just GW. If I or a customer support GW fully by buying their product along with the super over priced primer and it malfunctions they should make it right. And they always have. Now we are talking a regement box set, a tank, or less here. If you fuzz a whole 200$ box set that pretty much your fault as it should have been evident early on something was up. But seriously my GW reps have always made replacements of the figs and cans of primer when this issue happens. Not all that often acutally either.

I have heard excellent stuff on the duplicolor primers too, for the autobody stores like CarQuest and such, but have yet to use them. The Warmachine crowed sings the praises of that stuff for the metal models.

Today was my lucky day! I went to michaels to purchase my first airbrush. I dident want to buy the super cheap 30 dollar one, so after thinking about how much I could spare I settled on the 65 dollar badger 350 standard. Well I took it up to purchase, and it turns out they dident have any. I asked if they could make me any deal on the next step up, so they said I could buy any one they had 40 precent off. I ended up with the badger delux 200 set for 60 bucks, and its very nice from what my gaming buddy says.

Question: I have never used an airbrush, can I just take straight GW paint pots, put em in and undercoat however I like? Or do I still need to primer for best results. I cant wait to get started on the vehicles, should give a nice smoothe finish.

Can you get decent results with say 1/3 gw sunburst yellow, 1/3 rubbing alcohol, 1/3 water over a white primer undercoat. Was thinking about dipping them afterwards in antique walnut, then taking my time on the details.

I`ve used duplicolor with success

JohnHwangDD wrote:I've used Rustoleum automotive dark grey with good results. It's a little "toothier" than GW, but that's a matter of preference.

Others swear by Krylon grey and Duplicolor.

I swear by the Krylons. Testors is good but its not cheap. They have a gunmetal grey that I like.

So the krylons dont erase the fine detail lines? I looked and the only primer I saw they had was grey. Or do any of them act as an ok primer for plastic?

Krylon's Flat Plack is great. Perfect for Plastic minis.

For metal ones, you need to have an actual primer (Minis primed in the spray paint will chip more easily).

I often prime my minis with a very light, quick coat of Krylon's Grey Primer, then use Krylon's Ultraflat Black spray.

The trick is to use the grey lightly, so you can get the edges of the mini where he's likely to chip, but you won't lose detail on the chainmail.

Orock, I would still spray prime your models with an aerosol can, instead of an airbrush - you get much better adherance with a can. I really like the GW stuff, but it is expensive. If you can find it, krylon black primer is also pretty good, but not as good as GW black. For white, I'd go with krylon or rustoleum, as the last few cans of GW white I've gotten are really chalky...

And as far as the airbrush mixture, it varies by the paint, the airbrush, and what you want to do with it. If you wanna do a sloppy, grungy coat you can just do paint and water. If you want a thinner coat, you can add alcohol. If you want a nice, smooth color, put in matte medium and water. There's a whole ton of stuff you can do. Look around for good recipies - there's some good ones here, and on Belloflostsouls

So just look for krylon white? Dosent have to say primer or anything?

My basic ideas for my imperial fists were first after stripping the paint trying 2 methods of painting.

Method one: Primer white, aerosol sunburst yellow (1/3 paint, 1/3 rubbing alcohol, 1/3 water), then dip them in antique walnut dip, and paint the highlights.

Method two: primer white, paint or aerosol a gw orange color, drybrush white on top, and use the new yellow ink. Havent seen the results of this method and dont have the latest white dwarf.

I dont mind painting detail work, but I am really interested in getting what I like to call the tedious work out of the way. I want a good looking army relatively quickly (cant have your cake and eat it too I know).

Hopefully one of these methods I try on test models will come out a champ, because I gotta tell ya my method of primering black, going with space wolves grey, than 8 billion layers of yellow to lose the painting lines isnt getting me motivated to paint heh.

OK.. here is a further followup .. on my own behalf..

I have had good experience recently with the Walmart basic White.

Now, I am looking for sealer/overcoat. I don't know if I want gloss, semi-gloss, or matte.. but I do want to save money!

Did not see anything equivalent at Walmart.. but may have missed it.

What finishing sprays do folks use and trust?

-P

Wal-Mart runs that color place Clear coat, its gloss but its what you need to protect the fig from table play. I clear coat all mine with that and then "knock the shine off" with GW matt coat. I have also used testors dull coat both work well. The only misgiving I have on that combo is it really flattens out matalics so you may have to bring them back up a bit after the sealer.