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Hi guys,

I'm debating between using white Krylon primer ($3.00 at Walmart) and a Grey Primer I got from Michaels ($5 or $6.00). Any tips on which to use and/or methods not to ruin my whole army? I will definitely:

-Hold it far away from the models
-Not stay in any one place for long
-Clear the tip if needed
-Test it on a piece of sprue first

However, I can't decide between the two. I am not an expert painter and won't be doing many levels of colors. I will also be using watered down paints to make it smooth. I don't know if I'll get better coverage over white, since it's light, or if grey would actually be better for fewer coats since it's more of a neutral color.

Right now I'm planning on skipping the foundation paints and going straight to the color I want to use, then giving it a drybrush and a wash (not sure which goes first I've tried both ways and wasn't thrilled with either). For example, Catachan Green, Rotting Flesh, Devlan mud on a troll.

Advice much appreciate... thanks!! I will also post the pics when I have done it tomorrow . We're supposed to get a high of mid-60's so I think it's my last best shot to prime the army before winter.

Heya, RiTides!

What you need to do, if you're unsure about your coat, but have the main colour theme thought out already, is coating the miniature sprue, and paint it over with your colours, and see how they turn out. If you like it, the coat's fine - if you don't, then don't go for it.
Although not an expert or anything, i'd highly recommend you using a coat!
If i'm not mistaken, it'll make the paints stick better to the figure. And i believe that's much perfeered by most painters, aye?

- Also, when you've painted your miniature and feel happy about the result, i'd HIGHLY recommend you spraying it over with a thin layer of varnish. There's nothing worse than having used several hours on a miniature paintjob, just to find the paint falling off on a later occation!

Hope that helps


Regards
Bill'

I generally use grey primer since both white and black are fairly extreme colours and harder to cover.

Kilkrazy wrote:I generally use grey primer since both white and black are fairly extreme colours and harder to cover.

Really? I thought White were a fairly neutral?

That was my thought, KK- for some reason, my instinct tells me white is easier to paint over, but in practice I feel like I've had spotty results (trying to go in the way back machine to when I was actually painting ).

Thanks for the tip on varnishing, Bill- I was converted by matte varnishes even when I was buying other people's painted armies or having these commissioned to satisfy my plastic habit . Seems like a must-do for armies that are actually going to see the table and get dinged up!

Would love to hear other input on this, too. At this point, I think I'm leaning towards grey.

I wonder where I could get gray spray cans in my area. Ace hardware?

Well I would also go with gray. Gray = Awesomeness.

Generally when I'm painting something I prime based on how I want the model to feal when finished.

For example if it is going to be a bright model I start off white.

If its going to be a dark model then I start of black

If I want something that looks more "life like" I'll go gray.

My style of painting tends to incorporate alot of bright colors, alot of greens, blues, purples etc... With those I always start off white.

2.5K points of what? Sorry if I missed it, but the army you are painting will usually dictate the base color you want to use. Or at least it does for me. If I am going to be painting Orks or VC Zombies or Skeletons, I start w/ black spray. If I am painting Khorne Berzerkers or Nurgle Plague Marines I base white (the white "pops" the red and allows me to use inks / washes more liberally).

I have only used gray a few times, usually on terrain. I don't have experience with it beyond that.

Billinator wrote:

Kilkrazy wrote:I generally use grey primer since both white and black are fairly extreme colours and harder to cover.

Really? I thought White were a fairly neutral?

Extreme in the sense that it is harder to cover.

White tends to make covering coats brighter. It can work better on small models.

Black is also harder to cover than grey, and makes covering coats darker.

I only use white primer if the colour I am going to use is white or yellow
otherwise like KK I prefer grey.

Skalk Bloodaxe wrote:2.5K points of what? Sorry if I missed it, but the army you are painting will usually dictate the base color you want to use.

Ah, sorry for leaving that out! It's a Warriors of Chaos monster army (lots of trolls, ogres, dragon ogres, a giant, a shaggoth, and a deamon prince).

Since I am not going for super bright colors (although I would like them to stand out / not look "dull") it sounds like grey will be the most appropriate from the comments above. They are also larger models so if grey is easier to cover than white, that's definitely the most important factor to me! I would like the colors to look bright but hopefully I can accomplish that even with the grey.

I will probably be using Dark Angels, Catachan, or Camo green for the trolls, followed by Rotting Flesh and Bleached Bone for details, and a wash. For the ogres I will probably start with Dark Flesh followed possibly by Dwarven Flesh.

Thanks for all the feedback so far, guys

Kilkrazy wrote:

Billinator wrote:

Kilkrazy wrote:I generally use grey primer since both white and black are fairly extreme colours and harder to cover.

Really? I thought White were a fairly neutral?

Extreme in the sense that it is harder to cover.

White tends to make covering coats brighter. It can work better on small models.

Black is also harder to cover than grey, and makes covering coats darker.

Well, you may be about right about that. I'm collecting 'Nids myself, having them painted Hawk Torquise (i think thats the name) for skin, and black carapace with red highlighting. Problem at hand has been that the 'Nids have come out too "bright" - too shiny. There a pic' of an old painted Zoan (not the best painted, sorry), which should give an idea of what i'm talking about.

@Catyrpelius
Yeah, the white and black coat, i knew about. But i wasn't aware (at all) that grey gave a more realistic feel/look to it. As mentioned above, i've just gone with a white coat most of the time. The miniatures have just come out too bright - and bright 'n' shiny doesn't seem fit to this kinda army, if you ask me!

Grey is also where I start when painting white.

I think my current can of GW White Primer is probably the last one I'll ever buy, I'll still use the black, but I think grey will be my first choice for most models from now on.

Also, grey seems to be the optimal colour to show up any imperfections before the real painting begins.

Grey primer with a black wash over top makes it very easy to do detail work and painting those little areas where you want dark shadows with little trouble at all, the wash does your shadowing in the recesses and gives you a good solid look at the models finer points. in my opinion i very rarely use black anymore. finding a decent grey primer in spray has been hard for me up in northern canada. i use paint on gesso primer during the winter, only way i can prime up north during our rediculous winters.

Wow, the black wash is a great idea Diamonas! I will probably do that as soon as the primer has dried (although I assume I don't want the wash too heavy / dark, or else I might as well have primed in black ).

Would a brown wash do the same, since I'm going to be painting earth and flesh tones on top?

Related question- is 55 degrees (F) warm enough for priming?

I'm almost done assembling and am going to prime this coming weekend (didn't quite finish in time to do it yesterday) and that's the forecast.

I've had some less than fantastic results using cheapo spray primers on non-vehicle mini's. Just a warning. The GW spray is expensive, but it always works and never obscures detail. Just my .02


Automatically Appended Next Post:

RiTides wrote:Related question- is 55 degrees (F) warm enough for priming?

I'm almost done assembling and am going to prime this coming weekend (didn't quite finish in time to do it yesterday) and that's the forecast.

I would worry less about the temp and more about the ambient humidity. When you hold the spray back farther, it increases the likelihood of grabbing up tiny drops of moisture during the transition from can to mini. That can make it look like royal gak.

I'd say White. With Grey, it can be harder to see where there's Primer and where there isn't, so you can end up putting on far too thick a coat, especially if you're Priming a batch, not just, say, a Squad, or a single Mini. With White, you can see exactly where there's Paint, and where you need to spray more. Simple.

agroszkiewicz wrote:I would worry less about the temp and more about the ambient humidity. When you hold the spray back farther, it increases the likelihood of grabbing up tiny drops of moisture during the transition from can to mini. That can make it look like royal gak.

I'll second that. I used to live in Northern VA and after trying to basing miniatures in the summertime humidity a few times I was taught this lesson by a friend of mine and after that I had much better looking base coats.

A word on cold weather as well... I still base miniatures even in the dead of winter. I keep everything inside until it's ready to go (is less time outside for me as well) make sure the paint can is shaken, etc. I have the miniatures on a board for easy and secure moving. I head outside, set up on my bench, spray it, and then take everything back inside. I've left things outside before after spraying them and they had a weird "tacky" feel to them even after they dried.

Question: about primer and that is i bought the almond spray from lowes and michaels carries the krylone one for almond primer, and when i primed my models with the one from lowes since that is the only one i have the primer started to crack as it was drying does anyone know why that would happen

Skalk Bloodaxe wrote:I've left things outside before after spraying them and they had a weird "tacky" feel to them even after they dried.

The plastic cools at a different rate than the air around it, that makes condensation even if its so slight you can't see it with the naked eye. Metal even more so.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

ernshmagl wrote:Question: about primer and that is i bought the almond spray from lowes and michaels carries the krylone one for almond primer, and when i primed my models with the one from lowes since that is the only one i have the primer started to crack as it was drying does anyone know why that would happen

My guess would be crappy primer that isn't designed for miniature work. Not to be a jerk or anything, I'm all about trying to save a few bucks myself. Got a can of primer from "The Armory" and it ruined several models.

So would you recommend get the primer from michaels maybe instead but the first time i bought the primer from lowes just a different color lowes told me that it would work cause i asked them specifically that question could it be from the temperature as well

I'd recommend GW spray myself. Others will have their personal preference. Just make sure you use light, fast strokes and don't overspray. Its easy to do, and will basically ruin a model from the get go.

The sales person at Lowes doesn't have a very high probability of knowing wtf you are even asking him, let alone if the paint will obscure details that are measured in micrometers.

OK. so would my idea of a paint scheme work...mechrite red with the darkest red gw paint for scales, for the body take the p3 umbrel ubmer paint and use that for the body with either a raw or burnt umber wash and then for the weapons i am thinking of from almond primer to wash the gun in either just raw or burnt umber or pain the weapon bleached bone and then wash the gun with raw or burnt umber. For the claws and teeth use a black and then black for eyes and maybe tongue or pink for the tongue. or should i get the army painter bleached bone primer and then paint my models with the paint scheme above

I think grey would be confusing to paint over. It looks too much like the original plastic, plus, you won't be sure if you covered the entire model.

undivided wrote:I think grey would be confusing to paint over. It looks too much like the original plastic, plus, you won't be sure if you covered the entire model.

When doing grey your shadows are going to come from paints or washes. It doesn't matter if you "cover" the whole model, primer is more about getting the acrylic to stick than anything else.

People use white to get really bright colors, black to get a darker model, and grey is in between. Hope this helps! Primer is actually a really important step in modeling your mini's.

Well, you can differentiate the GW plastic gray if you used a different kind of gray.

Diamonas wrote:Grey primer with a black wash over top makes it very easy to do detail work and painting those little areas where you want dark shadows with little trouble at all, the wash does your shadowing in the recesses and gives you a good solid look at the models finer points. in my opinion i very rarely use black anymore. finding a decent grey primer in spray has been hard for me up in northern canada. i use paint on gesso primer during the winter, only way i can prime up north during our rediculous winters.

I really like this idea, and would like to try, but can I assume this technique wont work if you use a Citadel foundation color?