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I heard that Armory comes out grainy, GW/citadel is a bit high priced, hardware store stuff is what it is.

I need to prime a battle company (Ultramarines) in black. Looking for best option.

I use and have allways used the 99 cent per can Walmart "ColorPlace" brand. Works ok and I have better things to spend my $$$ on.

I use Rust-oleum Auto Parts primer I get at Wal-Mart. It is pretty cheap, and while it looks like it goes on thick, when it dries it shrinks, so it is a little more forgiving of people whose concept of "moderate amount" is sketchy at best, like me.
The other good thing about it as opposed to GW's black is that it will NOT rub off. You can use your finger nails to scrape it off, but that's about it. I know Salvage has some issues with GW rubbing off along with the paint on top of it, but this stuff will not be removed easily.

I've not had any problems with my Armory primer, though when I used their matte varnish it came out all dusty unless you hosed the fig in the stuff.

For plastics I have found Floquil Base Black Figure Primer to be the best I have ever used (15+ yrs). It is on the pricey side and can be difficult to find (I had to go to a model train/airplane shop to get it) but covers plastic better than anything on the market. I primered 55 IG, 13 IG heavy weapon teams, 45 SM and 6 SM attack bikes with 2 of the 3 ounce cans ($5.50 per can).

Unfortunately, it is not that great for the metal figures.

I like GW's stuff. It IS relatively expensive, but I find it coats the best and fastest and (here's the important part) it's only 1 coat, so it's not that bad.

Anyway, that's my $0.02.

I use the GW stuff for convenience as well (ie, I KNOW it works). I was unimpressed with the Armory primer.

I like krylon primer for a smooth, durable, cost effective primer. In my experience it goes on a little thicker but if you warm up the can in warm water the paint atomizes better. Just remember, warm not hot! I don't paint to a gold demon standard but I have won best painted at large and small tournaments. You should be able to find black Krylon at the superstore or large hardware chains, same cost as the grey. I have had mixed results with GW and armory paint but the Krylon is very consistent. After I prime and paint I use 3-5 coats of Krylon Krystal Clear to hermetically seal my paint job, then 1-2 coats of testor dull coat. Good luck!

I use Krylon simply because it's the only easily accessible spray paint within Chicago city limits ($@#*&$#* anti-graffiti ordinances!). It's okay.

Be forewarned though it goes on thick and IS NOT TRUE BLACK, more like a grey-black.

Yep - I use the Krylon dark gray primer for much of my stuff. You can get it just about anywhere - particularly cheap at Wally World or an Ace Hardware. When I went to Home Despot I was disappointed to find that they had white, black, and a pale gray, but not the usual primer gray I use.

Iorek wrote:I use the GW stuff for convenience as well (ie, I KNOW it works). I was unimpressed with the Armory primer.

Agreed. Citadel Black and I were on hiatus for a couple years as we had some bad experiences, but I've been happy for the last 6 months or so of being back together. She ain't cheap by any means, but I know I can trust her to come through when the temp/humidity is right

Armory was unimpressive for me too, get about what your $6 pays for I suppose. Painted some of my favorite CSM over that gravely coat, but would have rathered a smoother prime.

- Salvage

krylon ultra flat black, 3.49 a can, zero complaints.

miss the old GW black primer, the new stuf doent work for me.

I second the Krylon Ultra Flat Black

From what I've heard, GW used to outsource their primer to Krylon- and krylon ultraflat black is the same stuff.

The new chaos black primer doesn't work for me either.

The Walmart $.89 flat spray stuff worked for me. Was it as good as GW? No, but all I had to do was hit the mini with a wash of chaos black afterward (which I did for my GW primered minis anyway...) and it was the same as all my other mini's.

I alternate between Armoury and Rust-Oleum depending on if I have been to the local Nerd Store in a while or not. I like how Armoury dries, it is quick and takes paint well. Not as durable but once again, quicker. And if you have a good clear coat that shouldn't be an issue, better if used with plasic models. Though if I have not been to the La Casa Nerda in a bit then Rust-Oleum gets used, mostly cuz I generally have a case of it on hand from my excursions in..... um.... uhhhh, Street Art, same as Grafitti but legal. Okay, maybe it is not legal, but still.... Trying to draw Krylon out of my diet. Any more they tend to put too much laquer in it and it runs much more than it used to. Stupid Krylon! Grrrrrr!!! Punch it in the face!

I usually do one of two similar things: I either use an airbrush to spray the miniature with Chaos Black (make sure to water it down first, if using an airbrush!). This gives a very smooth, even finish. The other thing is just to use watered down Chaos Black, brushed on by hand. Because I water it down, it sometimes takes a couple coats, but it is usually quite even and keeps the the miniature from looking really "thick" with paint when you're finished.

Both of these are actually really quick to do, and in my experience gives a much smoother finish than a spray can. Plus, you don't have to worry about humidity and that sort of thing.

Dupli-color Sandable Primer. It's about $4.50 at Advance Auto and comes highly recommended.

GW chaos black, shaken for about 2 min. (seriously 2 min. not 20 seconds and saying "wow, that was a few minutes")

super smooth coverage, but takes a while to dry.
But, at the end of the day, I'll take drying time over rough primer EVERY time.

oh, and if you have an old hair dryer, once the primer has started to dry, you can run it on warm and effectively "bake" the primer on, which I find helps with the metal models (not necessary with the plastics and how the primer bonds to the plastic)

I've used both the Armory and GW brands, both work okay. I think I broke down and got the GW black one last time since it was all my local store had left. I use regular spray paint for terrain, and sometimes for vehicles. For plastic figs, I usually just paint a lightly thinned chaos black on it.

I just tried the Krylon Black, and wow, I thought my old sprays smelled bad!

yeah the smell is pretty bad, i prime outside now thanks to that, small price though. actually get to see the sun though, for a few minutes, until i return to the artificial light of my painting desk.

Duplicolor sandable primer is my current can. However, I have shot through maybe 5 cans of armoury, and over the years maybe 40 cans of GW sprays, and I have to say that weather makes much more difference than the brands. I was "not liking" armoury for a while after I had tried it, grainy. But I just primed some figs with it yestarday. Weather was good, they came out smooth as a babies butt. Go figure. Best priming I have ever seen was Tamiya X-2 trough my airgun. The detail was unreal. Looked like the fig was cast in white instead of metal.

Ghaz wrote:Dupli-color Sandable Primer. It's about $4.50 at Advance Auto and comes highly recommended.

I second this. I won't use anything else on my miniatures now. I get it at the AutoZone.

Besides the fact that I really like how it covers and it has really low tooth (it's not grainy) the can also has a really great trigger that makes it easier to use. I have to remember to pick some up before Saturday, as a matter of fact. I need to prime more stuff before winter comes so I'll have stuff to paint when it's 3 degrees F outside.

Halfords Matt black Primer, FAR better than GW (and works out cheaper - especially once that £8 a tin nonsense kicks in).

zero- my experience with Floquil was the opposite- it did okay on the metal, but whenever I handled plastic figures it would come off on my hands. After trying it I retried the new GW black, and it worked better than it did the first time I tried it and gave up on it. Must have been the weather difference.

Weather will destroy a priming effort. It makes more difference than brand. However, I have never had poor results from my airgun. I must also say that I agree about the trigger on the duplicolor. That is a real piece of work there, not the bleeding, clogging shyte that is the GW spray nozzle.

I personally LOVE the new GW primer. Shake it for a little and spray it on. If your doing a large batch the first ones will be completely dry and ready to be repositioned by the time your done with the last one. I primed over 100 models a couple days ago on about half a can in about half an hour and brought them inside and started painting right away. I love it!

I've used GW Smelly Primer and White Spray in the past though for my new CSM I will be using white Gesso.

Update: I used Gesso on him and it worked really really well. Probably thin it out a bit next time but it's the best mini I've painted in a long time, possibly ever.

I just tried two more types of duplicolor last night. The self-etching, and the filler. The filler of course went on thick. Som bubles. The self-etching went on perfect.

Bought it at Wal-Mart this time. not quite 5.00 per.

Board To Pieces is a new company that my local gaming store has started to stock. It comes in white, grey or black and is far superior to everything listed above. In addition it goes on thin ( but covers well ), does not fuzz, has a fan spraying nozzle ( as opposed to the normal cone nozzle ) and is half the price of GW, $7 dollars. Ask around it is awesome.