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I have used the Wal-Mart, color place, 96 cent spray paint as my black primer for some time now and today I went to Wal-Mart to buy some white spray paint for my new IG army. I noticed the stuff no longer said Color Place on it, and it the cap was slightly glossy. I picked up 3 cans of it anyway, not thinking too much about it. I got home and tried it out on a test model, and it's drying with a glossy finish. Has anyone else noticed that all the Color Place stuff is now gloss? This stuff was great as a primer because it was so cheap and worked well. Now that I have 3 cans of it though, have any of you had experience using a gloss primer? Will it work alright, or do I need to go out and buy a different primer? I won't be too upset if i need to, the stuff was only 3 bucks...

You either bought a glass finish, or someone mixed the caps. Thats why I always read the actual can to make sure. Ill say read my tutorial (its in my sig) on how to strip paint for cheap, but I dont know how itll work on glass paints

My current primer is gloss white ( enamel too )
If you absolutely have to stick with it , try adding badab black on it. ( or any GW wash ) some of them should stick on that ( mine did ) from there , your paint should be able to cling on the wash.

Well why do you stick with your gloss primer? And thanks, but I've already read the tutorial and have been using LATA for some time now KingCracker Unfortunately, the can didn't have anything on it as to whether it was matt or gloss, its a very cheap and basic brand.

imark789 wrote:Well why do you stick with your gloss primer? And thanks, but I've already read the tutorial and have been using LATA for some time now KingCracker Unfortunately, the can didn't have anything on it as to whether it was matt or gloss, its a very cheap and basic brand.

I bought it by mistake, and since i used it i cant return it, so i might as well try to use it.

And since black wash works on helping paint stick, im ok with it now.

Anybody have any good suggestions for a cheaper alternative to GW spray primer?

imark789 wrote:Anybody have any good suggestions for a cheaper alternative to GW spray primer?

I do, in USA you guys have a miracle primer made by Krylons

Walmart makes a flat white, a gloss white, a flat black, a gloss black, and a gray primer. I have never seen a can labeled black primer.
I haven't bought any in a couple of months but if they changed to all gloss I will be deeply saddened, that cheapo 'crap' was is the best darned primer I've ever used.

imark789 wrote:Anybody have any good suggestions for a cheaper alternative to GW spray primer?

Rustoleoum Auto Primer.

Find it at Walmart or Home Depot.

Cyporiean wrote:

imark789 wrote:Anybody have any good suggestions for a cheaper alternative to GW spray primer?

Rustoleoum Auto Primer.

Find it at Walmart or Home Depot.

Does it come in white? I have been priming my guardsmen white, since I end up leaving the armor plates solid white, and its hard to paint that over a gray.

LunaHound wrote:

imark789 wrote:Anybody have any good suggestions for a cheaper alternative to GW spray primer?

I do, in North America you guys have a miracle primer made by Krylons

Corrected that for you.
I second Krylon I paid 4$ for my can and it lasted longer than GW, obscured less details and oversprayed less, it is overall better and cost 1/5th of the price.
Bought mine at Rona, for Canadian folks, I didn't find it in Home Depots around here.

Dude, paint as primer? Yuck. But, w/e works for you, it's your army.

I also suggest Krylon Indoor/Outdoor primer, and they sell it in a nice white or grey primer (for my vehicles, I use the ruddy brown rust color). Follow the directions on the can, and it works excellently (for me anyway).

I second the Rustoleum primer comment, also works quite well.

fenrir1997 wrote:Dude, paint as primer? Yuck. But, w/e works for you, it's your army.

I also suggest Krylon Indoor/Outdoor primer, and they sell it in a nice white or grey primer (for my vehicles, I use the ruddy brown rust color). Follow the directions on the can, and it works excellently (for me anyway).

I second the Rustoleum primer comment, also works quite well.

Dais wrote:Walmart makes a flat white, a gloss white, a flat black, a gloss black, and a gray primer. I have never seen a can labeled black primer.
I haven't bought any in a couple of months but if they changed to all gloss I will be deeply saddened, that cheapo 'crap' was is the best darned primer I've ever used.

Yeah, that Wal-Mart stuff worked fantastic. To be totally honest, I only glanced around a little bit I didn't look around too much, but from what I remember every can had a glossy cap, so I assumed they had just switched the caps out. Maybe its just my Wal-Mart, but likewise I was disappointed. I might check to see if my parents have any Krylon laying around, I know we have a ridiculous amount of spray paint cans in my basement.

imark789 wrote:

Cyporiean wrote:

imark789 wrote:Anybody have any good suggestions for a cheaper alternative to GW spray primer?

Rustoleoum Auto Primer.

Find it at Walmart or Home Depot.

Does it come in white? I have been priming my guardsmen white, since I end up leaving the armor plates solid white, and its hard to paint that over a gray.

White, Black and Grey.

I found some Krylon Indoor/Outdoor Flat White paint (not primer) in my basement and just tested that out on a model. What exactly is the claimed advantage to primer over regular paint? I'm wondering if this will work fine for me or if going out and buying the primer is worth it, normal paint has worked fine for me before...I also found some Rustoleum White Plastic Primer which I may test.

imark789 wrote:I found some Krylon Indoor/Outdoor Flat White paint (not primer) in my basement and just tested that out on a model. What exactly is the claimed advantage to primer over regular paint? I'm wondering if this will work fine for me or if going out and buying the primer is worth it, normal paint has worked fine for me before...I also found some Rustoleum White Plastic Primer which I may test.

For use on miniatures- there really isnt any advantage to using primer over a flat spray paint. And if you repaint your stuff- stripping primer, especially automotive primer adds time & effort to the process.

Basecoat/prime for minis is the same thing- they just need something with a slighty more porous surface for the paint to adhere to than bare metal or plastic(thats why gloss doesnt work for a primer).

I had a couple freinds that swore by the 15$ GW & armory sprays, it waas maddening to watch them throw money away. Eventually I snuck some minis into thier box that I had primed with the generic walmart colorplace: "Wow, this was a good batch of primer! These guys are painting up easy..." And then I showed them what those guys had been primed with

Others will likely disagree- but its unlikely they can provide any proof that the expensive sprays work any better than the .96$ walmart stuff.

Thank you very much for the informative reply! It's comforting to know I stick with the Krylon stuff I'm using now, and if I ever find it, the color place stuff.

Thanks to everybody for their input!

Primer is meant to hold onto paint: its got a porous, slightly rough surface that is great for putting paint on. Paint on the other hand dries smoother, and isn't really meant to hold onto more paint layered over top.

Now as a comparison of expensive versus cheap, that's completely different. You can get excellent results with cheap primer, and crappy results with expensive primer. It's all about the conditions (weather, temp, user, etc.)

You're welcome, hope my input helped at least a little.

There is a $1 bottle of black primer that you can get in the painting section of home depot: I don't know the name, but it's a grey bottle with a rainbow-ish thing of red, black and green on it. It's right around a dollar and it works VERY well. I use it on all of my minis and haven't ever had any disappointments except that it is occasionally tacky for a couple hours. Also, this primer is a bit on the shiny side and makes for GREAT black armor.

timetowaste85 wrote:There is a $1 bottle of black primer that you can get in the painting section of home depot: I don't know the name, but it's a grey bottle with a rainbow-ish thing of red, black and green on it. It's right around a dollar and it works VERY well. I use it on all of my minis and haven't ever had any disappointments except that it is occasionally tacky for a couple hours. Also, this primer is a bit on the shiny side and makes for GREAT black armor.

touch and tone? i get it for like 2 bucks at the local autozone.

Well obviously your fine with cheap paint, so I use some from home depot. It comes in both black and white and its only 97 cents a can. Forget what its called but Ive used the stuff for years. Beats the hell out of paying whatever they charge for GW paint.

I use Krylon Fusion. Half the price of GW for as much fun in a can. Whee.

Swordwind wrote:I use Krylon Fusion. Half the price of GW for as much fun in a can. Whee.

Excellence.

Cheap paint is not the same thing as bad paint.

It sounds like the user was using flat black paint as primer and accidentally got gloss instead. Paint is not primer, for the listed reasons. Most cheapie brands will have a limited selection of primer colors. In automotive primers neutral gray is the most common, but if you paint very light colors it's worthwhile to do the extra searching for white primer. I've bought armory white primer for this purpose, it costs more than the discount store brands but it's still better and cheaper than GW products