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OK... I live in an apartment, it's cold as balls outside with snow on the ground. How do you guys cope with this situation when you want to prime models?

Short, quick sessions in a well ventilated room. If you have a bathroom fan, doing a small number of models quickly is reasonable, however in general, not advisable. If you do not have access to a well ventilated area, do NOT spray paint. It WILL kill brain cells.

Me? I switched over to airbrushing. It has a high start up cost (about $200, depending on the compressor, brush, setup, etc...), but is safe to use in a box (depending on your mixing agents, paint, and volume), and lets me use just about any paint and color I want!

Yea, any spray priming in the apartment will swiftly be shot down by the wife piece. :(

I just do it in my room, no matter how cold it is or if it's raining.

I just open my windows wide, turn the fan on and voilá.

oni wrote:Yea, any spray priming in the apartment will swiftly be shot down by the wife piece. :(

I've been taking them outside spraying them quickly but still getting a good coat then placing them in the bathroom with door shut and bathroom fan on. Working pretty well.

JunkyOrk wrote:

oni wrote:Yea, any spray priming in the apartment will swiftly be shot down by the wife piece. :(

I've been taking them outside spraying them quickly but still getting a good coat then placing them in the bathroom with door shut and bathroom fan on. Working pretty well.

I've also done this.

I run outside, spray prime, then run back inside. I just leave them somewhere I won't be - the suggestion of "bathroom with the fan on" is a great idea.

i do it on my deck! you could always come over and prime here! after all i watched jordi cut the feth out of my kitchen table yesterday. congrats on your win against the ryanator saturday btw!

I live in an army barracks, so I have next to no room to prime, but I found myself a little trick that had me kicking myself in the head that I didnt realize before.

Get a pair of pliers that you wouldn't mind spraying, and clamp 'em on the base of the model, hold it outside a window, and give it a quick hit. Thats how I primed my space wolf models. For a while I just soaked them in Chaos Black paint but it was eating up my paint and taking forever to do.

I usually take mine out in the hall or another interior part of the building outside my actual apartment, on a cardboard or 1" closed-cell foam sheet, spray, then bring them back in the apartment and rest them by an open window with the fan going. The bathroom fan idea's a good one too, if it's too cold to open the window.

Right now, I just brush on gesso.

The problem is the rain more than the cold. I don't have a covered area to run out and spray in, so this is easier and the results are adequate.

I spray inside a little used room inside a box on the window sill and crack the window open during and after until the smell has dissapated.

I live in a 1 bedroom condo so I feel your pain, but it's not too tough to spray models. I have a little private balcony, when it's cold out I just spray stuff outside and then bring the models inside right after to dry, and live with the stink a while. I have to do the same thing in the summer because it gets really humid here.

If you don't have a balcony, just go outside, spray, come back in. It's inconvenient, but it gets the job done.

I used to know a guy that would spray in his bathroom with the exhaust fan on.. don't recommend that unless you plan to repaint before you move out

Thanks for all the input.

I do have a balcony, but that's covered in snow as well and I'm concerned about over spray (I don't have any sizable boxes to do it in). Someone should invent an odorless spray primer that only bonds to plastic.

xdefton3sx wrote:i do it on my deck! you could always come over and prime here! after all i watched jordi cut the feth out of my kitchen table yesterday. congrats on your win against the ryanator saturday btw!

I appreciate the offer and thank you, the rematch shall be even more fun.

DOn't worry about not having a box, I use none.

My solution was to glue old newspapers sheets together with masking tape, then glue that on the wall wih more masking tape, and that protects both the wall and floor.

oni wrote:it's cold as balls outside with snow on the ground.

I challenge you!

Temperature: -18.1 Celsius!
Snow: 30 something cm high.

Is it still cold as balls there?

You just have to go up and down the building to spray your models outside... the temperature doesn't affect it in any way (as long as it's not too hot!)

Spacebase wrote:Right now, I just brush on gesso.

This is what I do when I can't go outside to spray for whatever reason. That stuff is like magic.

Dark wrote:I just do it in my room, no matter how cold it is or if it's raining.

I just open my windows wide, turn the fan on and voilá.

^^ thats what i do. turn the heater on aswell as not to chill the paint and my room too much...

I built a spray booth once. Largish cardboard box with a hole cut in it for a vacuum cleaner hose. Now that could be a little tricky since unsealed electric motors + volatile chemicals = bad things, but I wear respirators all the time at work and I used an organic vapor cartridge on the inside of the box to suck the air through. Worked pretty well

If you live high up try spraying off your balcony

You could (theoretically) use the vent above the stove - the trick is to put the models into a box that won't let paint out the sides.

Spray in the neighbors apartment.

I use the stick method! I think I read about it on From the Warp.

Basically, take a piece of 2x2 or 2x4 wood. Blue tack your models bases along one of the thin edges (note, all this is done in the warm) Shake up your can, and walk outside into a sheltered spot and spray a thin layer on your models.

Prop your stick up either in a porch/shed or hallway to dry and come inside. For me I just leave it in the hallway propped up against the wall.

Outside time - about 30 seconds to a minute!

Skinnattittar wrote:Short, quick sessions in a well ventilated room. If you have a bathroom fan, doing a small number of models quickly is reasonable, however in general, not advisable. If you do not have access to a well ventilated area, do NOT spray paint. It WILL kill brain cells.

Spray booth, extractor fan, wear a mask and keep spraying short and neat and lay down plenty of newspaper around the area. I've done it several times and it's fine as long as you take care and use small amounts because aside from the paint it *is* quite smelly.

The problem with indoor spraying is that, even with many precautions, due to the nature of an aerosol you can't help but have some thrown up into the air and you will notice a fine deposit appear on some surfaces around the room especially if you get into the habit of spraying indoors. It's not a major problem unless you have just fitted a new bathroom or something and want it to remain perfect. Point is you don't spray indoors if you're particularly precious about your house.

I prime exclusively with my Airbrush now... (Vallejo Air Grey Primer); and I do it in my apartment.

Howard A Treesong wrote:

Skinnattittar wrote:Short, quick sessions in a well ventilated room. If you have a bathroom fan, doing a small number of models quickly is reasonable, however in general, not advisable. If you do not have access to a well ventilated area, do NOT spray paint. It WILL kill brain cells.

Spray booth, extractor fan, wear a mask and keep spraying short and neat and lay down plenty of newspaper around the area. I've done it several times and it's fine as long as you take care and use small amounts because aside from the paint it *is* quite smelly.

The problem with indoor spraying is that, even with many precautions, due to the nature of an aerosol you can't help but have some thrown up into the air and you will notice a fine deposit appear on some surfaces around the room especially if you get into the habit of spraying indoors. It's not a major problem unless you have just fitted a new bathroom or something and want it to remain perfect. Point is you don't spray indoors if you're particularly precious about your house.

Or if you don't have the option of doing it outside like OP's case, who lives in an apartment.

What sort of gesso are you guys referring to please.
Am familiar with gesso made from rabbit skin glue size, whiting and zinc oxide, and also acrylic gesso intended for priming canvases.

Assume you mean something else.

Chibi Bodge-Battle wrote:What sort of gesso are you guys referring to please.
Am familiar with gesso made from rabbit skin glue size, whiting and zinc oxide, and also acrylic gesso intended for priming canvases.

Assume you mean something else.

Acrylic Gesso is what folks are talking about. There have been a few articles about using it to prime miniatures. Personally I had only nightmare experiences with it. If you paint with really thin paints it will give you a headache; otherwise it is probably fine.

Thanks Gunzhard
will look into it but it sounds like the stuff I have will be saved for canvas.

Though a bit of an experiment won't hurt I guess.

A large cardboard, a box fan, and an open window can do in a pinch.


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Not that I would recommend it!