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So, I heard the "new"(er) Citadel primers suck. If that is true, anyone have a primer they prefer over another?

I still use Armory stuff with great turnouts. And it's cheaper.

http://www.thewarstore.com/armoryspraypaints.html

I have never liked armoury. had bad results with it. Seems to be thicker.

Very expensive solution, but once you prime with and airbrush, you will never go back.

I prefer Krylon.
Armory always gave me over-spray problems.
New or old, I'd never pay for GW primer.

I liked the Boltgun and DA Green primers. The others didn't seem to do as well.

Thanks!

I swear by Tamiya's myself. It's a little pricey, but I like to treat my models like royalty. One day, I'll switch to airbrushing, I think.

Citadel's not actually primer, Armory is fuzzy, Krylon is OK (chips a bit too easily)...

But nothing beats Rust-Oleum Automobile Primer (Fast Drying, Wet Sandable). Doesn't obscure any detail, takes paint really well, and best of all sticks to pewter like nothing else I've tried. Plus, it's cheaper than the "hobbyist" brands. I currently use a light grey shade, and I love it.

My $0.02.

DFo wrote:Citadel's not actually primer.

WHAT!?!?!

That means nothing I've ever painted has ever been primed...

basically your going to hear..... KRYLON, some other higher brand of primer and a whole slue of dirt cheap primers. Im on of the dirt cheap primer users and really it lays donw nice. I like the cheapies(im talking dollar store maybe a little better then that) because its thinner. It gets into EVERYTHING and best of all doesnt muddy up the detail.

I love Armory's results. It takes a little more care to use it. If you are used to priming with another brand, and use it the same way, it will come out "thick." But using it lightly produces great priming.

As I understand it, Citadel USED to be primer, but is now just aerosol Chaos Black / Skull White / whatever.

I imagine it'd work just fine on plastics, but it won't stick to metals as well as a true primer.

DFo wrote:As I understand it, Citadel USED to be primer, but is now just aerosol Chaos Black / Skull White / whatever.

I imagine it'd work just fine on plastics, but it won't stick to metals as well as a true primer.

Why? What is the point of changing it so it isn't a primer? Surely that's just creating a product that won't sell.

3$ car primer from Wal-Mart. It doesn't fuzz unless you prime in the rain and it gives a nice even coat. If some guy that works at a GW told you car primer is meant to fill in gaps he is an idiot, it's meant to help paint adhere to a surface cleanly and smoothly. I heard a couple red shirts telling a new guy that. You don't need to waste 15$ on primer that will clog inside the bottle and become useless after a few sessions of priming.

There is some "gap-filling" primer out there, but I've used it on minis with no ill effect. I think it takes multiple coats to do that.

I use the GW stuff on all my minis. It works fine!

Since I've been living in student housing most of the time throughout the last four or five years, I've stopped using spray primer and started using just very watered down black paint (like Chaos black) to prime models, and also watered down gesso.

Gesso is a great alternative to spray primer, because even though it's not quite as fast as spraying, it is still quite fast because if you water it down a bit you can use a big fat brush and slop it on, and you never have to worry about humidity or crap like that.

There's a great Dakka article on using acrylic gesso for priming here.

Hammerziet wrote:Why? What is the point of changing it so it isn't a primer? Surely that's just creating a product that won't sell.

I think anyone shelling out GW prices for spray paint probably isn't doing too much research into whether it's paint, primer, or imbued with magical powers. Perhaps GW's steady march torward plastic made them reconsider the necessity of a true primer. But really, I don't know.

Iorek wrote:There is some "gap-filling" primer out there, but I've used it on minis with no ill effect. I think it takes multiple coats to do that.

I think it's the "self-levelling" stuff you really have to avoid.

Tamiya is great and it comes in a large selection of colors that make it great for speeding things along.