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As the title says. Seems like everyone uses something different


I now use the 97 cent spray cans from home depot. I like how the thinner paint lays on the minis. The detail left is just unmatched.

Cheapass primer ftw. The only prob with it is that when you get to the bottom of the can it starts to get chalky. It's a buck a can, though, so who cares?

Thats what Im saying! But I dont have the spittle problem. What I do is before I spray, I stick the can in a bowl of super hot water. That way the paint will be warm and a little thinner. Never had a spit problem.

I shell out the money for tamia primer. I really like it because its really smooth and seems to be easier to get an even coat with.

Krylon spray primer here. I have had some issues with the cheaper $.99 primer so I stay away from it now.

KingCracker, whats the name of the primer exactly?

and here i'm the sucker shelling out 17$ a pop for the GW primer... I use white for my space marines (Yellow basecoat) and black for my tau though.

Much of the time, priming is less about the type of primer and more about the technique.

Cheap stuff can work great, and for tabletop, I don't think there is anything better! But for a display piece you really can get a noticable difference by using something a little bit higher grade. And actually using a primer and not just a spray is helpful too ^_-;...

Right now I'm using a variety of primers and sprays. From GW's Chaos Black to Rustoleum White Primer.

I use the Armory's primer.. white or black. I get it off of thewarstore.com
around 5 bucks for a full sized can, and it lasts a while... my can just went empty, and I've had it over a month. I find that the quality of Armory primer is bit better than GW's.
Less goes further.

KingCracker wrote:Thats what Im saying! But I dont have the spittle problem. What I do is before I spray, I stick the can in a bowl of super hot water. That way the paint will be warm and a little thinner. Never had a spit problem.

To be fair my "priming station" is a table that I have set up outside. That's where my cans of spray paint live. By the time I get to the bottom of the can they're pretty rusty around the edges so maybe that has something to do with it .

Krylon white/Grey/Black.

A sandable auto-primer from the local auto supplier in black, white or flat grey. About $6 a can (the same size as GWs can) or $15 for a can the size they used to be.

It's a proper primer, too, so no issues with paint not sticking to it afterwards.

Works on plastic, resin or metal with no issues.

Akula wrote:
I use the Armory's primer.. white or black. I get it off of thewarstore.com
around 5 bucks for a full sized can, and it lasts a while... my can just went empty, and I've had it over a month. I find that the quality of Armory primer is bit better than GW's.
Less goes further.

This is probably due to the result of the weather I was trying to prime in, but particularly for Armory and any primer you decide to use for bloody hell sakes BE CAREFUL ABOUT THE WEATHER you're priming in!

Armory primer is particularly sensitive to the ambient temperature and humidity in the area (more so then the GW primer I picked up). If its too hot or humid, the primer will atomize and dry too quickly before it hits the model. What will happen is you'll have a rough sandpaper-like texture on your models that will rub off with just a light rub.

Overall, maybe I just had a bad couple of cans, but the large pile of assault marines sitting in simple green right now is testament that I'm going to be more careful using Armory primer in the future, or even using it all.

Sorry for the soapbox but I feel I just had to give a word of warning on it. :(

I have been using Liquitex basic acrylic Gesso.

The stuff is really thick so I cut it 50/50 with whatever color I am going to make my base coat. I have only recently started painting again and as such have only done a few models, but I have found this to be great so far with getting a good coat of pink for my deamonettes.

I picked up an $8 bottle at A.C. more, which is 473 ml, which is basically 16 oz. If you are cutting it 50/50 with paint that is a hell of a lot of primer. I am using the craft store acrylic paints for this as well.

Basically Gesso is very much like the old smelly primer, but the goopy part that separated and thickened when you let it sit to long. It even smells pretty much the same, which brings back a a lot of memories of when I started 40k.

The only problems I have been having is the paint or primer coming off of the tips of horns and similar sharp edges from my handling while painting, but I think I just need to be more gentle with them.

grey_death wrote:Much of the time, priming is less about the type of primer and more about the technique.

That link was great I will have to try Black Gesso soon, as well as saving that link for future reference.