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I've been asking a few people on how they paint their minis and I always get different answers on how they do it. The main difference seems to be in the Undercoat. What does Dakka think is the best undercoat to use? White, Black, Brown, main color of the mini, or something completely different? Let me know, I want to experiment with it.

I touched on this in your other thread, but I'll repeat here. I prime in white, because it's very time efficient compared to dark primer. It also seems to me that colors "pop" more with white primer, and becomes duller with dark/black primer. Personally, I'm more a fan of the "comic book-y" look (high color contrasts) compared to the more "realistic" (matte/flat, low contrast) look, and the "popping" colors seem to lend itself well to this.

I prefer a black primer.

coolyo294 wrote:I prefer a black primer.

Any reason for this or is that just what you do?

It really depends on what you're painting and what colors you're going to paint it.

For instance, say I want to paint an Ultramarine. I'm going to prime it black. Blue covers black fairly well, and space marines have all sorts of joints, crevices, and such that look good in black on the finished model. Plus, if there are any hard to reach areas on the mini, you can just not paint them and the black makes it so it isn't a glaring mistake.

If I'm painting an ork, (or anything with a lot of skin/fabric areas) then I'll prime white. Green ork skin needs to be bright, which you're just not going to get if you prime in black. Also, If you paint in washes or thinned down paint, you can cover large areas with them and white undercoat will give you nice instant highlighting.

For blood angels or anything mostly yellow or red, I prime white, then spray undercoat with the main color. It's just too time consuming to paint large areas of red/yellow with a brush if it can be avoided.

JustWeaver wrote:

coolyo294 wrote:I prefer a black primer.

Any reason for this or is that just what you do?

That's just how I roll.

It's really a colour matching tool. For me I use black for all my models so far, mainly since I gain a darker tone from the medium - dark paints I use (reds, greens, so on). For the really light paints like white, bone, yellow, you really want a white undercoat. Black undercoat will only create a time consuming issue of layering paints and boredom can ensue; white lets you cheat somewhat and paint the colours on nice and fast while keeping them light as they're supposed to be.

All depends like most are saying with what they are painting. I use black mostly because a lot of fine cracks are black anyways. Even for orks I use black because I use a foundation paint for the skin. Knoloc Green I think it's called. Then goblin green highlights with a devlan mud wash. I also find that black primer works better than white prime and, it might be just me, but I find I have to use more white primer to cover the entire models where as black is muchquicker and uses less paint.

I think it depends what colour your models are, if they're a dark colour go black, if they're a light colour go white. I've tried painting Ultramarines with both a white/black undercoats, and to be honest, with the blue there's not much difference.

It's just, as someone said, black covers crevices better.

....but if you're thinking about my mini /
It don't matter if the 'coat's black or white.

Tun-tun-tun-tuun. AOOOOoooow.

I just base the main color saves alot of time.

Depends - something gold or generally dark. Something with light colours (blue, red lots of skin) I use grey. I sometimes 'hightlight' my undercoat with a light dusting of the lighter colour (so grey + top down dust of white) to give an extra highlight.

I use a car body grey undercoat called http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hycote-Grey-Primer-Spray-Paint-400ml-/220671265782?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item3361084bf6 Theres an ebay link, but you should be able to pick it up virtually anywhere.

In my experience, white gives a model too much glare, whilst black mutes colour. This grey is perfect for light, and dark colours. Spray also gives a good coverage, so you're unlikely to miss any crevices.

The best answer is that it entirely depends on what you're going to paint. If you want a bright model, use white - a dark model, use black.

I tend to prime black, then do a layer of grey and then white from above to do a sort of Zenithal basecoat. Then I use multiple layers of watered down paint to achieve whatever look I'm going for. The watered down paint will be slightly transparent and allows the shading from the Zenithal basecoat to show through. Alternately, for a predominantly single color model (like one of the Emperor's Finest), I use an airbrush to basecoat - still leaving the Zenithal basecoat barely visible as a shade. The Miniature Mentor video series has a great vid regarding this technique.

I use grey. Here are some examples:

Grey primer is becoming a more popular choice. It gives you the advantage of a White and black base without the extremity (dulling for black, cartoony bright for White base). I will be basing my troops gren from now on and use the 'dusting technique' for character models.

Give grey a try.

White and Black ^^ doing something called Zenith lighting, you undercoat in black then spray white from above at several angles (depending on where you want the light to fall from) using thin paints you can use it as a guide and aid for highlighting. As for the old what's better, tbh it doesn't really matter, if your building up the paint layers properly very little of the original primer will show through. However i will agree that if your going for a quick and dirty 'get it on the table asap' army then the guide of white for mostly bright colours, black for mostly dark and gray if you can't decide works well too .