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Lately in WD and stuff I've been reading painting guides where they start out saying something like "spray your model with mechrite red", assuming they mean with the citadel spray gun. So.... are foundation paints able to be used as primers? or are they also spraying their models with primer first and not telling us?

Having not seen the direct article in question I can't answer for sure but generally they just assume you are starting with a primed miniature. Most of their painting guides first picture is a miniature primed in black.

Though they may have changed that trend now, it has been a very long time since I've looked in a WD.

I'd agree with Wayfarer... most of the time they show the primed miniature and never mention that step, but even if they start the article with the base coats, likely for the sake of brevity, I'd say it's safe to assume there was a primer underneath.

the article I'm thinking of was April's WD where they're talking about how to paint the baal predator.

I can see why not mentioning the primer step can save space, but I think it could lead to a lot of newer folks not even knowing they had to prime anything.

My April WD doesn't have any section for painting the Baal; are you in the US?

Regardless there is a "Painting Blood Angels' article and like you said, it never mentions the primer step.

I don't know why, but I do know that all of the GW painting articles, be it in WD or online, always leaves many steps out.

Prime before basecoating, even if using foundations. I spray foundations & although they cover well, priming gives you a nice grippy surface, all in the same colour - important if you convert & have some plastic & some metal parts.

I think they're advocating using the Foundations with the spray gun as a replacement for primer, rather than forgetting to mention it.
I've painted a few minis with thinned Chaos Black instead of priming them and there's been no problem.

Thorgut wrote:I think they're advocating using the Foundations with the spray gun as a replacement for primer, rather than forgetting to mention it.
I've painted a few minis with thinned Chaos Black instead of priming them and there's been no problem.

They will never advocate that.

Priming is an essential step that is explained in every basic model painting guide out there from pretty much every company.

It's assumed that you know to do it, because Foundation really doesn't stick well to bare metal/plastic.