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We have roughly a bit above 2° Celsius these days around where I live. I still have a bunch of minis that need painting though, so I was wondering how cold can it get and I can still prime minis safely with Citadel Chaos Black spray and leave them outside to dry so my appartment wont stink?

~50°F (~10°C), with less then 85% Humidity is what it says on my Rustoleum primer.. but since GW's sprays seem to be of lower quality, I wouldn't risk those temps.

Get a piece of scrap sprue and try it on that first to see if it has any weird characteristics.

Remember that GW Chaos Black is not true primer. It is Satin spray paint, GW quite making true primer years ago and unfortunately satin spray paint won't stick as well as true primer would and could even rub off if applied in less than ideal conditions (ie, below 50F).

Try it on a test piece, bring it in to dry for a few minutes and see if it looks funny. If it's fuzzy or super glossy or looks watered down than it didn't work and it won't work).

What I do is take the piece(s) outside to be primed, do quick, short strokes (less time the paint is in the air the less it'll freeze before it hits the model) and then bring it inside right away. Unfortunately some of the odor will get in the apartment but if you leave it out to dry in that cold of temps it will freeze before bonding right and then you'll have a mess.

I'd do them in small batches if you must do them outside as cold as it is.

Again, not sure how GW "paint" will react to extreme cold. I use Krylon automotive primer (says "primer" on the can) and it seems to work just fine in Mn winter temps. Though if I have to do one mini I'll just put it in a box that's in my room, prime it and then go and watch tv for a few hours. The house smells slightly of primer for a few hours but not enough to make any of the animals sick or me sick.

Yeah, most paint isn't happy drying at under 10 degrees C, I wouldn't risk it.

As a compromise, you could quickly spray outside then bring them inside to dry.

i was spraying some of my minis last night and im not sure of the temp but it was snowing

i didnt have any problems, just doing one side at a time and taking the models back in to dry then back out to paint.

i was using both chaos black and skull white

I've primed at -40*C before, and it worked fine. Just run the can under hot water right before you go out, and do the job quick.

Alternately, you could try priming with brush on acrylic gesso. That's what I do at work.

Read the can.

There will be tempreture parameters in the technical small print. Presumably as a chemical there should also be COSHH information on the GW website somewhere as well, this will include all technical information on their chemical products.

Problem solved. It was 10 degress this morning. Thanks for the advice you all.

Wait, you mean you guys don't do your spray-painting inside and get high off the fumes? You're totally missing out.

I can't. My parents still live with me and they would complain about the smell.

I love how "your parents live with you".

Is that the cool way of saying "I live at home with mom and dad but don't want to admit it?"

LOL. J/K.

All primers/paints say use in at least 50F temps but I find if done right you can do it at temps less than 0F. Just have to be smart about it and prepare for the worst.

I would say 50 degrees Fahrenheit-75 degrees Fahrenheit. You don't want it to be raining though, because there is too much moisture in the air.

Fateweaver wrote:I love how "your parents live with you".

Is that the cool way of saying "I live at home with mom and dad but don't want to admit it?"

No, I have no problem admitting that, it's just more fun saying it that way.

You know if you prime in a box in the bathtub (with the fan on) the primer won't adhere to the porcelain, it'll all scrub out. I've primed in my tub a lot and you can't even tell. It's not even in the tile grout.

I'm not sure how things are there, but here it's not possible to prime outdoors in the winter. The primer gets all grainy and sucks.

alanedomain wrote:Wait, you mean you guys don't do your spray-painting inside and get high off the fumes? You're totally missing out.

I've done that in residence before. Fumed up the entire hallway, since my computer's 9 massive fans (yay antec!). just circulated it around so well.