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I have discovered the joys of spray primer that has color in it, but I am not loving the price of the Army Painter brand. Are there any hardware store alternatives that behave like the colored primer? It simply saves an enormous amount of time with horde armies.

I use a wide range of Rustoleum and Krylon colors. Both companies make a camouflage range of colors. I use the khaki, green, and brown. I've also used the almond and sandstone from the one of those companies.

Here are some examples

So these were primed with Rustoleum and/or Krylon? And they take acrylic paint over them just fine?

Armory, definitely. A third of the price, and still meant for models. Works great.

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

Armory paints are nice, but I honestly prefer the Krylon camo paints as illustrated. They go on absolutely brilliantly; the new spray heads that were released a year or two ago mean no clogging or splotchy paintjobs like Krylon used to be famous for. Best value for your money, period.

Another Example would be Montana Spray Paints. They have, seriously, like 350 different Colours. However, I'm not sure where you'd pick it up in the US.

I know for a fact that the metallic Krylon colors are water repellent and not compatible with acryllics unless you give them a good coat of matte sealant first.

That being said, I've had great success with Rustoleum sprays that have a satin finish. One topic I would be aware of though, is that the color of the spray is rarely a match for the color on the cap. I tried color-matching to citadel using the caps and was very disappointed that Rustoleum Navy Blue is more like Ultramarine Blue than Regal.

Here are some examples of the work primed with Rustoleum or Krylon colored sprays:

Article on colored sprays with examples of the finished products: http://kan.org/michael/mkp/paints_spray.php

Here's a Space Marine Baal Predator that was primed with the Rustoleum Camo Brown



I'm also using the brown to primed a bunch of Necrons I'm doing. A bit of spot washing with Blazing Orange/Vermin Brown and an overbrushing of Gunmetal gives you a nice old, rusty look.